TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
TRANSPORTATIONOECD International Conference, Vancouver Canada
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
TRANSPORTATION
External effects of transport do not form part of economic calculations in that they are not contained in the market price. As a result, external effects are not taken into proper account is in individual production and consumer decisions. This leads, at the national economic level, to distortions in the allocation of resources. External effects can essentially be either positive in representing external benefits, or negative in causing external costs.
Environmental damage is quantifiable in certain sectors, but the figure put on these external costs is different depending on the evaluation methods used. Today, internalization could be practiced in several sectors: in other words the "polluter = payer" principle could be applicable.
A study by IWW (Prof Rothengatter) - lNFRAS (Dr. Mauch), on the "External Effects of Transport," quantifies the total external costs in 17 European countries to 272 billion ECU per year. On the whole, 92% of the external costs are caused by road transport while rail transport induces 1.7 %. The share of external costs on GDP is 4.6% on the average
The authors of the study also investigated the "external benefits" of road transport with the conclusion that it is extremely difficult to find examples of real extended benefits of transport, and that transport generates no external benefits of any significance. The average costs for passenger transport can be estimated with 50 ECU per 1,000 pkm on the road, 10 on rail and 18 in the air, while the costs for freight transport are estimated with 58 ECU/1,000 tkm for trucks, 7 for trains and 93 for planes.
On the one hand a full internalization of transport-related external costs would avoid certain traffic flows. On the other hand, the position of the rail mode on the transport market would be enhanced and induce transfer of some business from road to rail.