Indicators for sustainable mobility - a policy oriented approach

Abstract

Seven indicators are derived to measure transport´s most important environmental impacts. They are proposed for prospective analysis at the highest level of aggregation. With the aid of three valuation criteria adopted from life cycle analysis a transparent ranking and overall assessment can be established. A sensitivity analysis checks the validity of the results with resprect do data uncertainty and different value judgements. These elements can eually be applied as indicators for environmental sutainability or for strategic environmental assessment. The method and indicators are applied to transport trends in the state of Baden-Württemberg/Germany. Transport´s land use, carbon dioxide emissions and related particulate matter concentration are found the most important environmental problems. Impacts related to noise, NOx-emissions and ground-level ozone are seen second place under the 2010-trend scenario. this rankin is stable in the sensitivity analysis. To reduce direct health impacts from trasnport it will be necessary to reduce particulate matter concentrations and noise levels. This demands a coherent strategy including sources outside the transport sector. However 'traditional' abatement policies are insufficient to reduce long-term ecosystem impacts. Rather transport´s fundamentals, its land and (fossil) energy use, must be addressed. Still large gains in efficiency need to be accomplished to rverse the unsustainable trends and to achieve the targets. This will require significant technological progress, clever implementation for sumultaneous reduction of impacts but also changing consumers and producers.