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The volume of urban transportation sustainability assessments in academic literature has steadily increased over the last two decades. This paper targets these studies through the first systematic literature review to construct a synthesised and critical overview of how urban transportation sustainability is in fact assessed. The sample consists of 99 peer-reviewed articles retrieved via three scientific search engines. The results reveal a Europe-centric and single-case focus, a strong interest to introduce new indicator systems with limited references to previous work, and a lack of qualitative approaches and stakeholder diversity regarding the assessment methods. Nearly 2400 indicators are identified in the articles with significant variation in their use. Furthermore, the comprehensive accounting for sustainability is often overlooked, and the inconclusive assessment results are often noted by the authors of the sample articles themselves. Our findings signal that the research field is highly fragmented and to some extent fails to accumulate knowledge generated by past studies and to comprehensively operationalise the concept of sustainability. The identified shortcomings of the assessments and their implications for transportation policy-making and planning are highlighted, and based on our results recommendations to develop more reliable, comparable, and inclusive sustainability assessments for the urban transportation sector are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper outlines some preliminary results of an ongoing study on 'conditions of success in sustainable transport policies in cities'. The study consists of a comparative analysis of five case studies dealing with relatively successful European cities in three countries: Zurich, Basle (Switzerland), Amsterdam, Groningen (The Netherlands) and Freiburg (Germany). Having in mind the ongoing deterioration of traffic-related environmental problems in cities, the paper proceeds in a three-step approach: by describing the trends of transport of persons and the environment in general and of forerunner cities in particular, the opportunities and limits of sustainable urban transport developments are detected in a first step. In a second step, the degrees and patterns of environmentally oriented policy changes in relatively successful cities are outlined. The third step focuses on the reasons and ways policy windows open up for fundamental environmentally oriented changes of transport policies. It is argued that 'macro-windows' for such changes only open up due to strong and enduring forces originally from outside the local political system. Social crises and impressive political mandates were identified as important external factors that influenced the 'greening' of urban transport in the relatively successful cities. However, an open macro-window is only conceived as a political opportunity for change, a necessary but not sufficient condition. Whether or to what extent these opportunities are utilized depends on further factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transport problems that urban centres now face (as regard congestion, the environment and public deficits) have led to an examination of competition in the sector. Some countries have moved towards the deregulation or privatization of urban public transport, influenced by developments in the theory of contestable markets. These analyses could potentially provide a means of increasing the efficiency of public services and, hence, public transport. However, the authors do not feel that they can deal with the full extent of the problem. Particularly in urban areas, there is a need nowadays to examine the issue of competition between the passenger car and public transport, especially from the pricing angle. In France, decades of policy strongly influenced by a preference for the car have prevented this problem from being a central concern for researchers and decision-makers. The approach to the problem has mainly been centred on increasing urban supply to meet demand better. However, a failure to consider pricing, and the subsidization phenomena that can occur as a result, affects the shape of supply systems. Pricing, through its action on demand, acts on supply by increasing or reducing its potential profitability. 'Snowball' effects can, therefore, mean that slight underpricing results in the domination of one transport mode. These effects have been revealed in particular by work in the new field of network economics. The example of the Lyon conurbation shall be used to illustrate the case, which is that car travel is underpriced. The basis of the exposé will be a detailed analysis of the externalities associated with the car, i.e. the costs of car use and the revenue it raises for the community. The second part of the paper is a study of several urban travel policies in Europe (France, UK, Switzerland, Italy) to show the 'effects' of this underpricing. Where supply has followed the pressure of demand, the dominance of the car has been reinforced. However, in cities, particularly in Switzerland, where supply has been restricted, this dominance has been considerably moderated. On the other hand, it can be seen from the French example that taking strong action to improve public transport is not in itself sufficient to increase usage. Several lessons can be learnt from this work. First, it is shown, if it was still necessary to do so, that the problems of urban travel require a comprehensive and coherent approach. Modal policy must, therefore, be assessed with reference to the entire transport system. Next, in connection with the issue of regulation, it is important to consider the issue of competition in urban areas, and not only competition between public transport operators, but also (and even above all) competition within the entire system of personal and public transport. Finally, with regard to pricing, the ratchet effects that benefit the car as a result of its underpricing in urban areas need to be studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]