Sustainable Transport: policy initiatives in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom

The leading transportation mode is not sustainable. Individual motorised transport causes congestion and emissions, which puts pressure on environment, economical welfare and quality of life. Backing congestion and emissions must reduce global climate change, air pollution and loss of productive time. Developing sustainable transport alternatives is crucial in the discouragement of individual car use. This paper discusses policy implementations for sustainable transport alternatives.
A qualitative oriented approach explores congestion-reducing measures in the Netherlands, Germany and United Kingdom. A comparison of these policy measures ends in recommendations for the Flemish transport policy.
Results show that neighbouring countries can learn a lot from each other's policy implementations. Germany and the UK introduced 'road pricing' for freight- and passenger transport. 'Green zones' improved life quality in the German cities. 'Traffic management' and 'incident management' are very effective in the Netherlands. A clear view on these policy instruments increase traffic flows significantly.
An evaluation of the positive and negative effects of these measures from abroad, can improve the effectiveness of the transport policy in Flanders.

ISBN:978-90-5487-580-2

Publication year:2009

Keywords:Sustainability, Transport alternatives, Policy measures