Urban Transport and Sustainability: The Key Challenges

This article provides an overview of trends in demand for urban transport, considers their implications for the achievement of a set of urban transport policy objectives, and summarizes the principal problems which are likely to arise. It notes in particular the challenge of meeting climate change goals, which is likely to dominate the development of urban transport policy over the next four decades. It considers the range of policy instruments available, and summarizes evidence on their effectiveness. On this basis it argues that a package of policy instruments is needed, and provides evidence of good practice in the design of such packages. It reviews the barriers to the design and implementation of such packages, and summarizes international guidance on ways of overcoming these barriers. Finally, in a concluding section, it identifies the principal areas in which innovations are needed in urban transport policy and, in its role in providing the context for a special issue on modeling, suggests the resulting requirements for model development.