Sustainable mobility: a dream or a necessity?

Since the emergence of globalisation, the transport industry is one of the most rapid growing sectors, so much so that freight transport based upon the produced ton kilometres has been growing at a higher pace than the underlying economic determinant – e.g. GDP – at least since the last two decades. This is the result, among other things, of:
•  growth of world population and income per head
•  growth of economic activity due to globalisation and  liberalisation
•  growth in terms of specialisation and diversification
•  growth in socio-economic flexibility as regards localisation (shifts), production (quantities) and consumption (habits)
•  growth of containerisation, telecommunication, internet, etc. representing new ways of transportation enhancing delocalisation or relocation of industrial plants and commercial firms.

Consequently, our civilisation is increasingly confronted with the negative external effects of transportation, such as horizon and air pollution, congestion and traffic accidents. This is occurring all over the world as a function of economic growth. The consequence thereof is an aggravating imbalance between the demand for mobility – both in terms of passengers and freight - and the supply of transport - mainly in terms of infrastructure. Traffic congestion on roads, for example, is becoming a real structural problem and is no longer just an accidental phenomenon. On the other hand the amount of necessary investments in infrastructure has been declining seriously since last decennia: in Europe in the seventies, for example, an average of 3% of GNP went to transport infrastructure, whereas since the eighties merely 1% is budgetary reserved for such investments. No wonder that eventually a disturbing discrepancy came into existence between demand and supply, i.e. between the ongoing increase in demand for more mobility and the relatively shrinking available transport capacity (1). 

Social science states that the absence of “equilibrium” sooner or later always creates undesirable side-effects. No wonder therefore that especially in and around large cities traffic congestion and the related queuing or waiting times often cause a great deal of discontent, whence intolerance, unhappiness and even social hostilities together with various accidents and fatalities arise amongst carriers and travellers.