I have always considered that the substitution of the internal combustion engine for the horse

marked a very gloomy milestone for the progress of mankind.

Winston Churchill (1942, as cited in Enright, 2001)
Background:
After the discovery of fire, it was the invention of a round object, called the wheel, which has
impacted our daily life most significantly. During its early stages, no other invention other than
the wheel must have revolutionized the evolution of mankind. Though some of the discoveries1
have indicated that the wheel was first used for making pottery, however, it was the invention of
wheel (then the wheel and axle) which supplemented the mankinds natural spirit of mobility and
exploration.2
Since the times the wheel was invented and the present time, inquisitive human mind led to
many more discoveries and inventions which fueled rapid growth and industrialization. The
industrialization contributed significantly towards urbanization which further added to economic
growth and opened new job opportunities. 3
The process of urbanization has many dimensions such as demographic, social etc. Therefore,
once an area is industrialized, the process of urbanization continues on for a much longer period
of time as the area goes through several phases of economic and social reforms. One of the
effects of the rapid urbanization is the growth of transportation systems. Initially it was a
necessity for matching the need of transportation with urbanization and therefore both of them
continued to grow and expand, turning into a vicious cycle with each trying to outpace the other.
With the invention of steam engine and then the petrol and diesel engines, the transportation
transformed itself and movement from one place to the other and long distances became easier.
1 Based on diagrams on ancient clay tablets, the earliest known use of this essential invention
was a potters wheel that was used at Ur in Mesopotamia (part of modern day Iraq} as early as
3500 BC
2 The Egyptians invented the sailing ship about 3,100 BC. The wheel was invented in Sumeria (Iraq)
about 3,400 BC. It may have been invented first as a potters wheel and later used for transport. Whether
first developed as an 'invention' in one place, or re-invented in several, wheels seem to have evolved as a
natural solution to the problem of transport in areas where both oxen and wood are available. By 2000 BC
heavy wheeled transport is in use in a region stretching from northern Europe to western Persia and
Mesopotamia.

3 Industrial revolution led to large manufacturing centres, job opportunities and

migration from rural to urban areas.

In fact the automobiles fitted with internal combustion engines and the economic growth of a
country became synonym to each other. Very soon the economic prosperity of a country could be
assessed based on the growth of the transportation sector and the automobile industry.
Sustainable Development
However, in ------- the world started feeling that the mother earth has a limited capacity and it
would not be possible to exploit the natural resources forever to satiate the ever increasing needs
of the man-kind. The researchers noticed that we would be leaving infertile land and inhospitable
environment for the future generations and therefore our economic activities should be
sustainable i.e. the development should be sustainable. One of the first of these clarifying phrases
was used in the Brundtland Report of 1987 (United Nations World Commission on Environment
and Development, 1987). That report discussed what was referred to as sustainable
development, which was defined as development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
Sustainable Transport Systems
Within 30 years when this phrase was first coined, sustainable development has now become an
important issue to the development and growth of any country. Urbanization and urban mobility
has been at the centre of sustainable development. Without major changes this definition can be
extended to sustainable transport, which may be defined as transport that satisfies the current
transport and mobility needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
these needs (Black, 1996, p. 151).
Another way of expressing these ideas would be to state that sustainable transport represents
transport and mobility with non-declining capital, where capital would include human capital,
monetary capital, and natural capital (see Pearce et al., 1989; Daly, 1992). Daly (1992) does not
define what he means by sustainability, but has specified three parameters on the basis of which
any sector can be considered sustainable. By applying these parameters transport system can be
considered sustainable if it meets the following three conditions4:
1. The rate at which it uses renewable resources does not exceed the rate of regeneration.

Sustainable transportation: problems and solutions / William R. Black

2. The rate at which it uses nonrenewable resources does not exceed the rate at which sustainable
renewable substitutes can be developed.
3. Its rate of pollution emission does not exceed the assimilative capacity of the environment.
Schipper (1996) states that sustainable transport is transportation where the beneficiaries pay
their full social costs, including those that would be paid by future generations. He further notes
that changes in travel are associated with a number of potential externalities, including accidents,
air pollution, congestion, noise, damage to the species habitat, increases in carbon dioxide
production, and the importing of oil. It is these externalities, not transportation or travel per se
that threaten the sustainability of the system (p. 1)5
Europeans generally refer to the notion of sustainable transport as sustainable mobility. Some
U.S. groups also prefer the use of this term. The Mobility 2001 report defines sustainable
mobility as the ability to meet the needs of society to move freely, gain access, communicate,
trade and establish relationships without sacrificing other essential human or ecological values
today or in the future (MIT & CRA, 2001).6
What makes the transport systems non-sustainable?
Black has further explored the question of sustainable transport and has stated that it would be
easier to identify the variables which make the transport system non-sustainable. These variables
are: use of a finite and Diminishing Petroleum Reserves, Global Atmospheric Impacts, Local Air
Quality Impact, Crash Fatalities and Injuries, Congestion, Noise, Level of Mobility and Other
contributors to transport non-sustainability such as biological impacts and equity. The definition
derived from this review and analysis is: A sustainable transport system is one that provides
transport and mobility with renewable fuels while minimizing emissions detrimental to the local
and global environment and preventing needless fatalities, injuries, and congestion.7
It has been argued by various experts that one of the root causes of non-sustainability in the
transport sector: climate change due to Carbon dioxide and other emissions from transport and
other sectors have led to a forcing of the greenhouse effect, or global warming. With the
5,6&7
6
7

Sustainable transportation: problems and solutions / William R. Black

technological developments, most of the other sectors which consumes energy in some form or
the other have been successful at limiting these emissions, however, this has not been the case
with transport. We also examined the major impacts of global warming, noting that these broadly
fall into two areas: impacts from increasing temperatures and impacts from sea level rise. The
impacts that may befall the transport sector and its various modes if emissions continue unabated
were also discussed. In this discussion Hurricane Katrina was used as an illustration of some of
these impacts simply because the storm surges associated with sea level rise would be similar.
Abatement was briefly mentioned, but dismissed as something that does not now seem like a
possible strategy for limiting the impacts of climate change. Nevertheless, it does make some
sense to try and limit the emissions of greenhouse gases to prevent the impacts from being worse
than currently anticipated.

This is easy to understand on the surface, but soon we have to face the fact that the needs are not
specified very well, and even if we resolve this matter, we must then stop and decide how many
future generations we are talking about.

Urbanization involves an increased numbers of trips in urban

areas. Cities have traditionally responded to growth in mobility
by expanding the transportation supply, by building new
highways and transit lines. In the developed world, that has
mainly meant building more roads to accommodate an evergrowing
number
of
vehicles.
Several urban
spatial
structures have accordingly emerged, with the reliance on the
automobile being the most important discriminatory factor
What We Really Mean by Sustainable?
On their face, nearly all transport modes are sustainable. This is true whether we are looking at a
horse and rider or a Cadillac Eldorado, a sailboat or a 747 airliner. The problem is the coupling
of these various transport modes with excessive demand. None of our most common transport
modes can handle large numbers of users, and this is the problem. In this chapter we will slip
back in time to what are often viewed in retrospect as sustainable transport modesbut we will

demonstrate the myth of this perspective. It is likely that primitive man could walk across the
African savanna grass without doing much more environmental damage than modern man does
by walking across his lawn. Over time it is possible that a path, absent plant or grass growth,
could be formed by the repeated use of the same route. The failure of grass to grow is essentially
a product of soil compaction, and it might represent the lower end of an array of impacts that
begins with such compaction of soil and extends to the modification of global climate. At the
lower end, however, we can often stop using the path, or dig up the soil, and allow the path to
return to its former state as part of the grassland or part of the lawn. Early man did create such
paths in different parts of the world. In North America several of these were in evidence and use
when Europeans first arrived. One of these in Pennsylvania was called Nemacolin Trace, named
after a Delaware Indian chief who helped establish it, and it became the path that several later
transport lines followed. The potential negative impact of these paths or trails was minor in terms
of the natural environment, and it is likely that significant impacts rarely extended beyond the
path. Domestication of livestock may have resulted in some early travel by this mode in Europe,
northern Africa, or Asia, but we have no evidence to suggest animals were used for transport. In
North America horses of the size that could have been used for transport were not even present
until the arrival of Europeans (Hernando Cortez in 1519). The mustang herds of the American
West were said to be descended from those early European horses.
We have examined the historical development of transport systems, focusing variously on windpowered wooden ships during the 17th and 18th centuries, railroads and horse and carriage
transport in the 19th century (verging into the 20th century), and motor vehicle transport in the
20th century. In every case these modes start off at a scale that is manageable and
environmentally benign. However, as the use of the mode increases, it becomes more and more
threatening to the society that uses it. The merchant and naval ships of Europe eventually
resulted in the deforestation of large sections of England, France, and Holland. The railroad
industry ultimately deforested huge swaths of land though North America because of its demand
for large quantities of wood for construction and operating fuel. Horse and carriage transport
grew to the point where it was beginning to pollute urban areas seriously with animal wastes.
Motor vehicles now threaten to alter the climate of the planet as they consume huge quantities of
petroleum. Nevertheless, each of these transport systems could have been sustainable if the

numbers involved could have been kept well under control. This observation suggests that part of
the answer to attaining long-term transport sustainability may lie in diversity that is, not relying
unduly on a single transport mode or fuel source.

In this chapter we have identified the major air pollutants that make transport systems nonsustainable and have explored the legislative background of motor vehicle emission standards.
Although per-vehicle emissions have been decreasing rapidly in the United States, and indeed
throughout the developed world over the past three to four decades, the level of total emissions
annually has not fallen as rapidly for all of the air pollutants (in the case of nitrogen oxides, even
rising). This trend mostly reflects substantial increases in the total vehicle miles traveled in the
United States over the same period. We also reviewed the negative health consequences of these
pollutants as well as those six air toxics emitted by transport sources. The air toxics have only
recently drawn the attention of policymakers and researchers, and relatively little is known about
them. The costs to society of both the criteria pollutants and the air toxics is
an active topic of research and public discussion. Finally, we reviewed the provisions of the
Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program, noting in particular the
importance of congestion relief in helping to curb emissions. Localities can use these programs
to get into conformity with or to maintain adequate air-quality standards.
We have suggested that a sustainable transport system would ideally have no fatalities. However,
one must ask the question of whether this is an achievable goal. If all envisioned safety devices
were installed in vehicles, if all of the improvements in transport infrastructure were undertaken,
and if all of the regulations were enforced, would we have zero fatalities? Probably not. There
will always be the unanticipated event or behavior that leads to a fatality. At the same time, if we
move in the directions suggested in this chapter, we will see a more sustainable transport system
in terms of fatalities than what exists today.

An Introduction to the Range of Possible Solutions

We begin with the statement by Daly and Farley, above, simply to acknowledge that not all of the
problems of sustainable transport can necessarily be resolved by policymakers in the employ of

local, state, or national governments. Therefore in this chapter we give an overview of the
solutions that are possible, understanding that not all of them can be implemented at every policy
level or geographic location. Considering the enormity of why our transport systems are not
sustainable, including global climate change, substandard urban air quality, diminishing
petroleum reserves, motor vehicle fatalities and injuries, and congestion, we must recognize that
the vast scale of these particular problems requires that they be addressed at different levels. The
one major exception is global warming or climate change, which rightfully demands a global
solution, or at least the consensus of key nations on how to attack the problem. The other
problems are susceptible to solutions propounded at different levels and aimed at various scales.
For example, one might address the problem of motor vehicle fatalities as a global problem, but
in practice a national program, or even state or local program, might be most effective in
stemming the level of fatalities and injuries. Diminishing petroleum reserves probably cant be
reversed through actions at any governmental level, but the development and use of alternative
fuels can certainly be prompted by both nations and localities, as shown in numerous historical
instances. Similarly, air quality problems and congestion are often most effectually handled at the
scale as well as local and state levels. So, although attacking these problems globally might be
admirable, it would be naive to believe they would be resolved through concerted action at that
scale. So, in the chapters that follow we examine the various ways and scales at which these
problems can best be addressed.
Policy Solutions
The first set of proffered solutions we offer are pricing solutions, which in turn, are divided into
two types. The first entails getting the true costs of using various transport modesin particular,
motor vehiclesreflected accurately. If we can get even some of these indirect costs into the
price of gasoline, that price will more closely resemble its actual cost to society. The second set
of pricing solutions has to do with congestion-free taxing and the use of tolls. We will examine
some of the approaches that have been used in this area. Land use and how it factors into various
solutions are also examined in the chapters to come. Land use planning does not directly address
any of the major problems of transport sustainability, but if we can control the activity space over
which driving occurs we can materially affect emission levels, fuel use, and traffic congestion
levels. This undertaking is not as easy as it sounds since there are fundamental disagreements
regarding land use planning, such as whether compact cities are better or worse than dispersed

cities. Yet another approach to sustainability in the transport sector relates to indicator based
planning, also referred to as benchmarking. This is a very different approach
to planning than that typically followed in the United States. It involves identifying specific
variables related to sustainabilityor, more accurately, non-sustainabilitymeasuring these, and
then attempting to improve on the values obtained. For example, for any given city, we might
calculate how many minutes it takes the average resident to get to work (as a measure of
congestion), or the vehicle miles traveled as well as other variables, and try to set targets as to
what these values should be. Determining exactly how these targeted goals could be achieved
would entail implementing specific policy initiatives. Our next set of solutions, based purely on
policy, involves examining a wide range of programs that run the gamut from encouraging
greater use of bicycles and more walking by individuals to large-scale global solutions to some
of the problems. Specific examples of these programs and how they have been implemented
are provided. One specific set of policies to be examined involves speed and speed limits. These
may be set at various governmental levels ranging from municipalities and localities to states or
provinces. In some cases these speeds have been set by governmental units without any clear
understanding as to exactly what implications they have for fuel consumption, emissions, or
accidents. We do not believe that these are necessarily capricious policies, although the manner
in which they are sometimes set suggests this possibility. Certain countries have approached
sustainability at the national level, developing specific plans and agendas to improve the
situation within their own borders help to solve the global problem. We examine such plans in
the cases of the Netherlands and Israel. Other countries that have also undertaken such plans,
most notably Canada and the United Kingdom, have met with mixed success. The United States,
on the other hand, has not been very aggressive or resourceful in this area. The actions of the first
Bush administration during the late 1980s verged on outright opposition, while those of the
Clinton administration were little better, being voluntary for the most part. The George W. Bush
administration took office bitterly opposed to the Kyoto accords and ended its tenure little
changed in its attitude, based even on ingrained skepticism of the scientific case for global
warming. The broad area within transportation planning (and engineering) generally referred to
as travel demand management consists almost exclusively of policies and actions that will
make transport more sustainable. We refer to this area as sustainable travel demand
management (STDM) and focus our discussion on the policies and actions that offer the most

credible approaches aimed at developing sustainable transport solutions. Next we look at the
potential role of education in this entire area. To a certain extent we have been educating the
population in the United States to partake in enjoying all of the mobility they could possibly
desire. While this may have been the mindset for most of the 20th century, when we gave
unfettered encouragement to the automobile industry to vigorously promote the use of gasguzzling cars. Now we must convince the public that this is not necessarily a good idea.
Changing directions so radically will not be an easy undertaking. These various policy solutions
and educational approaches are more likely to be found in European countries than in the United
States. In the United States we have always relied heavily on the idea that there is a technological
fix for nearly every problem. This is one of the truly interesting differences between these two
regions. We will examine the various technological solutions that exist in this particular area, of
which there are four major categories.
Technological Solutions
The first set of solutions relates to the information and communications technology area. The
principal solutions we will look at are telecommuting or tele-working, the various
communications substitutes for travel, and finally the role of e-commerce as it affects businessto-business transactions and business-to-consumer transactions. Communications has always
been closely related to transportation, and up until the development of the telegraph nearly all
communications over significant distances required transportation.

A second set of solutions involves the introduction of alternative fuels. Many of these are already
in use, and we will examine their use. It is unlikely that planning organizations will be involved
in developing new fuels, but they can be very influential in the adoption of some of these by
cities, states, or other governmental units for use in their various vehicle fleets. We will examine
the merits of each of the fuels and their potential as a long-term solution to the problem of
diminishing petroleum reserves. A third set of solutions is more technical and is included more
for background than for implementation. This is the area of different vehicles (including
hybrids), fuel cells and their use in transport, and the probable change in the future role of
catalytic converters. We will also discuss the role of electric vehicles even though these have
nearly disappeared from our toolbox of sustainability solutions. The last set of technological
solutions, namely, intelligent transport system technologies, is found almost exclusively in urban
areas. Nearly every city has implemented something in this area in an attempt to better manage
the flow of traffic. At the same time, some of these technologies do not directly address
sustainability issues. Most of them involve mechanisms that will facilitate the flow of traffic,
and in that sense they will reduce the costs of congestion, namely, travel time, fuel consumption,
and emissions. Some others offer the promise of decreasing fatalities from accidents. However,
there are many technologies in this area that do little for sustainability, for example, fare
collection systems or passenger counting systems for transit operations. We focus our discussion
on those that have the most relevance to the sustainability problems addressed here.

Urban Form
Planning for Sustainability
It has long been recognized that urban form, the shape and geographic area occupied by a city,
can influence the length of virtually every trip made in the urban area and as a result the total
travel in a city. If we wish to decrease fuel use, congestion, pollution, and crashes, which also
increase with travel, it is desirable to reduce the factors that increase the travel needed in a given
environment. We begin with the influence of various classic urban shapes on the amount of travel
needed; this is followed by a discussion of the influence of models in this area and some notions
from new urbanism planning as well as an evaluation of the merits of compact cities in the
transport sustainability area. A general discussion of land use control in the United States
concludes the chapter.

In the MDG goal setting exercise, transport was not specifically considered. MDGs have been
strongly identified with basic needs provisioning, and since transport has often been equated
with infrastructure, it was not classifiable as a basic need. In addition, development groups
representing transport have not been very influential and were not exerting themselves in the
international MDG arena sufficiently.
However, half-way through the 15 year MDG program, transport started to be
recognized as an important means of achieving various goals.
The final report of the Open Working Group (OWG) on SDGs, published on 19 July 2015 is
acknowledged by many as a breakthrough for the sustainable transport community.
The fact that transport related targets are included in eight out of the seventeen
proposed SDGs (Goals 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13) illustrates the cross cutting role that
transport has in sustainable development (see figure 1).
The transport relevance of the SDGs and their targets can be direct or indirect (see
tables 1+2). Transport stimulates economic and social development, ensures
accessibility to opportunities - but is also associated with a number of direct and
indirect externalities such as traffic congestion, air pollution and road accidents.

Over and above the transport link to specific SDGs and targets, this paper illustrates that
transport plays a vital role in contributing to all SDGs. It becomes clear that transport has to be
understood as means to an end rather than an end in itself. Transport is not only a matter of
developing transport infrastructure and services, but rather the ease of reaching destinations in
terms of proximity, convenience and safety.
This paper illustrates the correlation between transport and each of the SDGs and
seeks to provide suggestions for transforming the transport sector into a
sustainable one. Many SDGs are dependent on transport to meet their targets.
Transport may not play a major (or obvious) role in a goal - but to achieve the goal
and its targets, transport is necessary and acts as a vital enabler. It has thus
become clear that by ignoring sustainable transport it will be much more difficult to
achieve most of the proposed goals.
Transport reduces absolute poverty through economic efficiency by lowering
costs and enhancing opportunities 2. Growth in goods transport and GDP are strongly
co-related.
Investing in efficient and clean transport infrastructure and services (passenger and
freight) is key to achieving sustainable economic growth, improving access to
services and markets, and enhancing social well-being of communities, building
productive capacity, as well as promoting trade and regional and global integration.

The correlation between transport and food security is particularly visible in the
context of rural accessibility5. Small-scale farmers with meager quantities of surplus
food often struggle to pay for the transport of their goods to the market (stranded
harvests). In achieving target 2.3, transport infrastructure improvements, efficient
logistical chains and affordable transport options as alternatives to head and backloading all impact on agricultural productivity and farmers income through time,
energy and cost savings.
The transport sector is a major source of air pollution in cities and often the largest
source of small particulate matter (PM) and NOx emissions that drastically affect
public health. Other air pollutants emitted by transport sector and affect public
health includes, lead (Pb), carbon monoxide, benzene and volatile components
(BTX), and heavy metals. There are many transport policies that can help achieve
Targets 3.4 and 3.9. Some of the main policies that can reduce air pollution by up to
95% include (re)designing cities such that active and public transport is the main
mode of transport; and providing cleaner fuels and implementing vehicle emission
standards for light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles.
Reliable, less cumbersome (in terms of physical effort), low-cost transport can
positively contribute to access to formal education and the achievement of targets
4.2 and 4.3, with impacts on subsequent livelihood opportunities.
The provision of equal access to safe and reliable transport can promote equality
and equitable educational opportunities for all. In many parts of the world, pro-male
school enrolment still prevails. Actions have to be designed for increased
accessibility of education facilities for female students to achieve target 4.5.
Transport is a key enabler for women to access opportunities such as health
services, education facilities, jobs or for participation in politics and social activities.
Hence, safe, reliable and sustainable transport interventions can make a big
difference in increasing womens education, productivity, health and promote
gender equality - hence illustrating a strategy to achieve targets 5.5 and 5.6.
Basic mobility needs of women and men are different and grounded on the genderbased division of labor within the family and community. It is therefore essential to
integrate women into research, planning, decision-making and policy formulation of
any transport interventions.
Particularly in rural areas, womens time burden is affected by inadequate transport
systems. Studies on rural transport showed the plight of rural dwellers, especially
women, who spent substantial time and energy on transport activities, to the
detriment of their development potential.8 Improved management and finance of
rural transport infrastructure, as well as services through both motorized and nonmotorized means of transport have thus great potential to achieve target 5.4.

Against the background of targets 6.1 and 6.2, reliable, low-cost and efficient
transport infrastructure and services can improve physical access to water and
sanitation facilities - particularly in rural areas. Transport helps to reduce the burden
of accessing water supply and sanitation services in these areas particularly for
women and girls. Safe transportation (e.g. well-lit streets) can furthermore enhance
womens access to water and sanitation facilities.
From an environmental perspective, transport emissions and transport-related
waste can result in water contamination through metals and minerals impacting
on water quality and availability. A range of emissions of substances caused by
transport may reach soils, sediments from drainage systems, or surface waters via
both water and air, some of these may partly reach groundwater. Transport
installations and facilities, such as petrol stations or airfields, may be substantial
point sources of groundwater pollution9. Waste and ballast water release from
inland shipping impacts on the water quality of inland fresh-water sources. Water
contamination can also be sparked by waterborne transport of dangerous goods
incl. chemicals, oil and other hazardous products.
Transportation accounts for approximately 25% of the worlds energy demand and
for about 61.5% of all the oil used each year. Motorization is still in a high trajectory
in developing countries, where private car use for daily travel is the main mode of
transport, causing major vehicle traffic, increasing fuel use and emissions. By 2030,
many developing countries will have higher GDP per capita, and several will have
doubled their vehicle fleet. In order to achieve Goal 7, economic development will
have to be de-coupled from energy use and emissions. There are various types of
actions that can be taken to improve the efficiency of transport fuel use, like
improving road conditions, providing high quality fuels, promoting eco-driving,
better vehicle technologies including promoting electric vehicles, and over-all
improvement of urban transport systems. For example, providing innovative solar
power generating facilities and charging stations for electric 2-wheelers can provide
a sustainable transport option in urban and rural areas, especially where access to
electricity.
In order to achieve target 7.3, improving vehicle fuel efficiency of vehicles will be
key as motorization in developing countries is still high. Implementing fuel economy
standards, vehicle labeling, and fiscal policies including feebates and taxation-based
on vehicle efficiency are examples of policies to achieve this target.
Quality and cost of transport have a major impact on economic growth, on the ability of
businesses to compete, on the movement of freight and on personal productivity. Efficient
transport (transport activity, logistics chain, reduction of trade barriers) is fundamental
for a more efficient economy particularly for developing countries hence
representing a critical element in achieving target 8.2.
Improved public and non-motorized transport options and travel demand
management/pricing mechanisms help to manage congestion and increase
economic growth in city contexts. Traffic congestion imposes a heavy burden on the

economy due to time wasted in slow traffic, fuel wastage and increased emissions
(up to 10 % in Lima, Peru)10.
In order to achieve target 8.5, transport plays a critical role as a major employment
sector that offers a diversity of jobs. In Europe, for instance, the transport industry
directly employs more than 10 million people, accounting for 4.5% of total
employment. Manufacture of transport equipment provides an additional 1.5%
employment11. The African example illustrates that every direct job in the transport
service sector usually results in 2 to 2.5 indirect jobs in other sectors. 12
In order to achieve sustainable industrialization, trans-border connections and
transport development corridors for spatial inclusion of and connectivity between
economic hubs play a crucial role. A robust and resilient transportation
infrastructure is an essential element for a resilient supply chain as disruption to the
global, interregional, national and local trade lanes could impact development, as
transport costs could be increased and delivery of products delayed.
Reliable transport can enhance social and economic resilience as well as meeting
security and emergency response needs. Serious disruption to transportation
infrastructure can have catastrophic impacts on the ability of the community,
business and economy to prepare and recover from a disaster. The importance of
transportation networks in pre- and post-disaster evacuation becomes obvious and
might be of life-saving nature
Economic growth and social development is highly related to improved access of
people and goods (through transport) to the core economies and other
opportunities. Sustainable transportation can enhance accessibility if the planning is
based on the principles of inclusion and equality. Inadequate transport remains a
key reason for the persistence of poverty and inequality among
Transport ensures access to services, goods and opportunities. Compact city
planning can reduce the need to travel. When combined with an inclusive and
efficient public transport system including more attractive and safer options for
active mobility, namely walking and cycling, integrated land-use and transport
planning can improve accessibility and contribute to environmental sustainability.
Affordability of transport for the urban poor and accessibility of all, including for
people with disabilities, women, the elderly and other vulnerable groups are
essential for the city to be inclusive. Women are known to have experienced
violence and harassment while moving around in cities. Their travel needs are also
different from those of men. To make cities more inclusive, women need to be
involved more in the planning and implementation of transport interventions.
Applying green technologies and processes in transport and logistics will be a
crucial component of comprehensive strategies towards more sustainable ways of
consumption and production of goods and services in the entire economy. The

shortage of reliable rural transport services has been quoted repeatedly as being
responsible for food crops not reaching the market at all and holding back farmers
to expand food production for the market. In other cases the poor quality of
transport services accounts for waste happening during transport to the market.

Sustainable transport solutions offer significant mitigation potential and are

essential in meeting the 2 degree Celsius goal to minimize the impacts of climate
change. GHG emissions from the transport sector have more than double since
1970 increasing at faster rate than any other energy end-use sector. Some
transport-related gases also deplete the stratospheric ozone (O3) layer which
naturally screens the earths surface from ultraviolet radiation. Short-lived climate
forcers, particularly Black Carbon from diesel vehicle emissions also impact climate
change in addition to increasing risk for premature deaths.
In order to achieve this target, comprehensive sustainable transport solutions have
to be pursued, including integration of land-use and transport planning,
prioritization of public transport, non-motorized transport/ active transport, electric
vehicles, cleaner and more efficient internal combustion engine vehicles (policies for
advanced vehicle technologies, emission standards, and cleaner fuels). In addition,
greening of vehicle manufacturing and infrastructure construction can help to
reduce GHG emissions from the transport industry.
Actions also have to be prioritized towards adaptation or enhancing the resilience of
transport infrastructure and services. Resilient infrastructure and services can
combat the impacts of climate change, including preparedness, protection,
response, and recovery. There are also adverse impacts of climate change on
transport infrastructure, e.g. extreme heat cracking roads and twisting train rails, or
roads being washed away by extreme weather events. Against these new
experiences, road engineering, road materials, and train rails have to be adapted to
address these issues.
Transport as an enabler of economic growth, regional cooperation and economic
integration also across jurisdictional borders can help to increase economic
equality and thus political stability. International transport corridors play an
important role. Border zones are a common conflict trigger. Hence, cross-border
collaborative trade and transport solutions are required such as alignment of toll
charges, border control procedures or harmonized security measures for transport
operations.
Transport is essential for stabilization missions in the quest to access and rebuild
post-conflict states. Peace-building missions are often reliant on transportation
systems for supply of lifesaving materials and activities. The rehabilitation of
transport infrastructure can contribute to poverty reduction, economic growth and
inclusive social development.
On the other hand, transport corridors can facilitate insecurity and the activities of
insurgents.