Transport themes
The considerable variety of transport projects necessitated structuring by subject area, to permit simple search facilities and appropriate policy analysis. Projects have been categorised according to a multi-dimensional thematic structure, divided into 5 areas resulting in 30 transport themes as shown in the following theme definitions:
Sectors:
Passenger,
Freight
Geographic:
Urban,
Rural,
Regional,
Long-distance,
EU accession issues
Modes:
Air,
Rail,
Road (incl.walking and cycling),
Waterborne,
Intermodal freight transport,
Innovative modes
Policy Objectives:
Economic aspects,
Efficiency,
Equity and accessibility,
Environmental aspects,
Safety and security,
User aspects
Tools:
Decision-support tools,
Financing tools,
Information and awareness,
Infrastructure provision (incl.TENs),
Integration and policy development,
Intelligent Transport Systems,
Land-use planning,
Pricing and taxation,
Regulation / deregulation,
Transport management,
Vehicle technology
Passenger transport consists of all transport of people rather than of freight. It includes all forms of public and private transport of people by air, land or water, whether scheduled or unscheduled. It includes non-motorised and pedestrian transport. It also includes the transport of baggage which is travelling with a passenger. Passenger transport may be urban, rural, coastal, local, long-distance or cross-border and involve one or more modes. Given the breadth of this theme, it is only used where the research is of relevance to the planning, organisation or operation of passenger transport modes to the exclusion of freight.
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Freight involves the movement of raw materials, of work in process, of finished goods from supplier to consumer and of new and used consumer products back to supplier. It is also concerned with the movement of agricultural products and animals. This includes the movement of waste. Freight movement is increasingly intermodal and multimodal and uses local, regional, national and international systems. Indirectly, it is concerned with the organisation and management of the supply chain and of logistics services, as they dictate the quantity and quality of freight transport demand and the nature of the commercial relationships between shippers and transport service providers.
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Urban transport is defined as passenger and freight transport internal to built-up areas, including trips having at least one end in the conurbation. Typically it is made up of trips no longer than 15 km. Its main elements are motorised private traffic, public transport, non-motorised transport, service vehicle traffic and ‘last mile’ freight traffic.
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Rural transport is passenger and freight transport in low-density areas (i.e. as opposed to urban transport), with specific reference to the initial and final leg of passenger and freight trips of any distance. It is mainly concerned with the local road network used by passenger trips for any purpose, including commuting, and by freight pick-up and delivery trips, as opposed to inter-urban and long-distance transport, which uses the primary multimodal network. Rural transport includes travel within areas devoted to tourism and protected areas such as national parks. It addresses issues of rural isolation which are also relevant to the equity and accessibility theme.
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Regional transport involves the movement of passengers and freight between neighbouring urban agglomerations and between them and their hinterlands. This can include a number of modes and includes the distribution of goods to rural areas, the shipping of agricultural and industrial goods and supplies to and between urban centres, and similar person movements. This theme also covers economic, social and territorial cohesion problems which occur at a regional level, for example where there are physical barriers to movement.
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This covers passenger and freight transport over considerable distances of 80 km and more for rail and road, and in excess of 250 km for air travel and seaborne transport. This definition implies that long-haul excludes urban, rural and regional transport independent of the means of transport. Modes employed in long-distance transport usually comprise air, rail, road and waterborne transport. Increasing globalisation of trade requires large-scale, long-distance transport infrastructure such as motorways, high-speed rail links, airports, shipping terminals and pipelines.
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This theme is concerned with transport research activities specific to the needs of the newly acceded EU member states and future candidate countries, application of Community research to these countries, and research specifically on the transfer of practice to such countries.
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This includes all airborne passenger and freight movements that are carried out by heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air vehicles. Principal means of air transport consist of fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, tilt-rotors and airships. The focus is on commercial aviation by domestic and international airlines, relying on dedicated airport infrastructure and air traffic management systems for regional, European and global transport. It also covers services, including those on the ground, related to these operations.
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Rail transport consists of all land passenger and freight transport which runs on both dual and single fixed rails. This includes heavy rail, light rail, tram, metro, funicular and monorail. It does not include Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) systems (which may or may not have conventional rails) or MAGLEV systems, where the track is not strictly a ‘rail’: these two types of mode can be found instead under ‘innovative modes’.
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This consists of all transport which runs exclusively or principally on roads. ‘Roads’ include all forms of thoroughfare ranging from a track or path to a motorway, as well as associated infrastructure (bridges, cuttings, tunnels, parking areas, footways, etc). However, it excludes ground activities in ports and airports which are directly associated with the functioning of air, maritime or inland waterway transport. Guided vehicles are included if they have the capacity to run on normal roads as well, e.g. guided buses can be counted as road, but not trams (as these are rail based, even if the rails run along a road). Non-motorised modes, including walking and cycling, are also included here as, for the most part, they share the same infrastructure.
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This consists of maritime transport, short-sea shipping, inland navigation, estuarial shipping, and that part of land operations which consists of cargo handling/transfer between waterborne transport and other modes.
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This involves the movement of freight in one loading unit or road vehicle, which uses successively two or more modes of transport without handling the goods themselves while changing modes. By extension, the term ‘intermodality’ has been used to describe a system of transport whereby two or more modes of transport are used to transport the same loading unit or truck in an integrated manner, without loading or unloading, in a (door to door) transport chain.
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These consist of all transport passenger and freight transport not covered within the definitions of road, rail, air, waterborne or intermodal transport. These innovative transport modes require special vehicles or infrastructure. This includes all unconventional and innovative land-based modes, as well as traditional land or sea-pipelines. Concepts that fall under innovative modes include unconventional underground transport, e.g. utilising evacuated tubes, pipelines, fast-moving walkways and various Personal Rapid Transit and cable-driven support systems.
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This theme is concerned with the competitiveness and economic development aspects of sustainable mobility. The competitiveness aspects concern the impacts of transport policy on the competitiveness of both the transport industry and other industries. The economic development aspects concern the impacts of transport policy on the development and economies of the areas affected. Development and competitiveness impacts occur mainly through the mechanisms of cost savings and improved accessibility, but may also be generated by changes in environmental quality. These can affect different industrial sectors and areas to differing extents. The main effects of this are the revival of economic activity, the increase of employment levels, the attraction of new investment or the expansion of existing industries. The competitiveness of the EU transport industry is an objective per se.
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Efficiency concerns the minimisation of the resource costs of a given transport system and the maximisation of its resource benefits. Resources include infrastructure, land, vehicles, fuel and labour. Social cost-benefit analysis has expanded this list to include the resource values of time spent travelling, accidents caused and, in some countries, environmental impacts. The relief of congestion and unreliability is thus a significant element in the consideration of efficiency.
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The equity objective is concerned with ensuring that the impacts of transport strategies are reasonably equally distributed, or are focused particularly on those with special needs. Among the latter may be included lower income residents, those without cars available, elderly and disabled people, and those living in deprived areas. Social inclusion is a related issue concerned primarily with accessibility (or lack of it) for those without a car or whose mobility is impaired. Accessibility can be defined as “ease of reaching”, and the accessibility objective is concerned with increasing the ability with which people in different locations, and with differing availability of transport, can reach different types of facility, such as employment, shopping and leisure. It is also possible to consider accessibility from the standpoint of the employer or retail outlet, wanting to obtain as large a catchment as possible in terms of potential employees or customers.
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Environmental aspects include all the adverse side effects of transport on the environment. They include air and water pollution, noise, vibration, visual impacts, social impacts and waste disposal. On a wider scale they also include the contribution of transport to climate change. Research includes assessment of the severity of these impacts, analysis of mitigation measures and the development of environmentally-friendly technologies.
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Safety implies freedom from danger: in practice transport safety refers to the level of danger that is socially acceptable in a real-life situation, where risk arises when human beings, goods or property are exposed to any part of the transport system. Different levels of risk attach to different modes and to different activities. The acceptable level of risk is judged according to the choices made by individuals, whether as operating staff, drivers or passengers. The safety performance of a technical system is the measurable consequence of the extent to which it behaves as expected, with and without the interaction of human beings. Security is the undertaking to protect human beings, goods and transport systems from the real and perceived threats of crime, terrorism, negligence, technical failures or natural phenomena.
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The user aspects of sustainable transport primarily concern the freedom of mobility for any citizen, whatever their physical ability, income and social status. The users’ choice and rights include the freedom of mobility, independent of where they live and work. Transport services are judged by the quality they afford to users, involving aspects such as, reliability, flexibility, comfort, affordability and convenience. The term quality is also related to accessibility, efficiency and safety and security. The use and operation of means of transport always involves human individuals. This is often an interactive process, and is strongly influenced by human factors such as professional training, adaptation to new technologies and behavioural responses. Human factors can refer to impacts on individuals, such as drivers and operators.
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These are the methods and tools used by policy makers in: prediction and simulation of the performance of transport systems; transport studies estimating the equilibrium between a given supply of infrastructure and services and the demands placed on them; impact studies providing the environmental, safety and socio-economic impacts of transport policies and projects; ex-ante, ongoing and ex-post evaluation studies of transport policies and projects; and the monitoring of transport systems. Decision support systems also include the information systems and tools used in the commercial sector, by operators of transport fleets for the management and operation of commercial vehicle fleets.
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These are methods to bridge the gap between the financial cost of transport projects and the revenue which they might generate by facilitating and promoting ways to finance and operate transport projects. They include the instruments that provide the needed capital up front for the construction/renewal of the infrastructure. Financing tools can be divided into two major categories: cash management tools, and credit enhancement and/or investment tools. Specific examples are: provision of capital for investment; financing schemes for transport systems; public-private partnerships; socio-economic financial and risk analysis; and the assessment of positive and negative impacts resulting from new financing principles. Financing tools also include the creation of suitable organisational structures with the capacity to manage new approaches in financing.
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The range of possible measures that come under this heading involve making improvements to the information available to transport users and operators, to make them more aware of the implications of their use and operation of the transport system and thus to support transport policy objectives. Some measures are traditional fixed information systems; others draw on real-time applications of information technology. The information helps travellers make more informed decisions about how, when, where and whether to travel.
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Infrastructure provision is concerned with the planning, financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of transport infrastructures for all modes. It includes both physical networks and information and communication networks. Physical networks include the right of way and the facilities at the access/egress points and at the points where modal transfers occur. Information and communication networks support the management of traffic flows and the provision of information. The theme includes the development of interoperable “Trans-European Networks” (TENs), covering all modes, which is a key part of the EU transport strategy.
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Integration refers to the strategic integration of different policy instruments to achieve improved performance of the transport system. Strategic integration can involve the coordinated planning of several modes so that each contributes more effectively. It can involve the combination of different measures under the dimension of “tools”, including infrastructure, management, regulation and pricing. It can also involve integration between transport and land-use policies. The research emphasis is on how best to achieve benefits from such integration, either by increasing the benefits or by overcoming barriers to the implementation of any measure. Hence the theme also addresses research into the wider issue of policy development. A distinction is made between strategic integration and the operational integration of different modes for freight or passenger transport. This theme covers only the strategic aspects. Operational aspects of integration, either within a transport mode or across modes, are covered under the six modal themes and under the passenger and freight themes.
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Intelligent Transport Systems (sometimes known as transport telematics) comprise several combinations of communication, computer and control technology developed and applied in the domain of transport to improve system performance, transport safety, efficiency, productivity, service, environment, energy, and mobility. ITS can be applied to the transport infrastructure of highways, streets, and bridges, as well as to a growing number of vehicles, including cars, buses, trucks, and trains. These systems can be used both for passenger and freight transport. These technologies provide a new means of improving the service quality and management of the transport system.
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This tool focuses not on the transport system itself, but on the land-use patterns which generate the demand for transport. The overall emphasis is usually to identify ways in which the demand for travel can be reduced by increasing development density to reduce the need to travel and by developing land-use patterns designed to encourage provision and use of public transport. Another important aspect is development control, designed to match the traffic impact of developments with the ability of the transport system to cope with the pedestrian and vehicular traffic they generate.
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Pricing involves specifying the charges imposed for access to and use of elements of the transport system. It includes fares, parking charges, road user charges and tolls. Taxation involves imposing taxes on consumers for the consumption or purchase of certain transport commodities and services. Taxes are, with rare exceptions, either related to the right of access or to the use of the infrastructure, and are a simple and practical instrument for raising state revenues. In the context of transport, pricing and taxation can be important means of influencing the demand for travel for each mode of transport, in order to achieve transport policy goals, such as economic efficiency and environmental sustainability.
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Regulation, in the context of this theme, is defined as the use of physical regulation or the law to correct what is perceived to be failure, particularly market failure, in the transport sector. Regulation may also be used to achieve specific transport objectives, such as safety. Deregulation is the removal of regulations, often in order to adjust competition policy. If (government) regulations are perceived to be failing in some way, deregulation is often called for. Both regulated and deregulated systems can involve both private and public sector enterprises.
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The measures under this wide-ranging tool involve changing the way in which the existing air, rail, road and waterborne transport systems, particularly the infrastructure, are used. They involve a wide range of approaches, including increases and reductions in road capacity, reallocations of that capacity, and changes in the operation of public transport. They include measures to influence car, public transport and freight vehicle use and the use of non-motorised modes.
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The theme covers all technologies related to transport vehicles of all modes and targeted to the sustainable policy objectives within transport. This comprises analytical, experimental and conceptual work as well as hardware development for research purposes. This theme only covers base technologies and component technologies to the extent that they have specific transport applications.
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