VISION: Road Transport in Europe 2025 - FEHRL

Under the Market-Led scenario users would be required to pay for information on predicted journey times and for
real-time information during the journey. They would also be required to pay for improved levels of service, for
example more reliable routes would be available through the use of tolls. Wherever alternatives which involved
payment were available, pricing would be instrumental in achieving a balance between traffic flows and reliability.
In the Sustainable-Society scenario the emphasis on durable infrastructure would reduce maintenance needs and
consequent disruption. The more general move towards sustainable lifestyles - with the planned rebalancing of
transport and land-use - would have the effect of limiting or reducing demand for certain journey types. As far as
possible, alternative modes would be provided for those journeys that were required.
In the Ideal-World scenario fast construction and maintenance and highly desirable roads would minimise disruption.
Real time information about network conditions will be available to users to enable them to plan their journeys.
Availability of ACCESS
Requirement
Travel should provide full access to destinations in relation to need and economic value; it should be socially
inclusive.
Developments
The purpose of travel is to undertake activities such as work, school, shopping and leisure. These activities
could be made more accessible through land-use planning that located the workplace near schools, shops and
leisure activities and within easy reach of the home. Access to these should not discriminate by age, income
or physical ability.
The use of IT and telecommunications to provide a growing network of connections for home working and
business and workplace activities, along with retail supply-chain linkages, will constitute a profound increase
in accessibility. This will complement physical travel. As we have already said earlier the evidence so far is that
these activities do not automatically substitute for physical travel; rather, so far they have added to it,
constituting an additional raft of activity driven by greater opportunities for accessibility.
It would, we believe, be possible to induce some substitution by selective policies aimed at some journey
types, including the use of pricing mechanisms; but over the next twenty years it seems more likely that social
and work patterns will absorb the new possibilities for access organically - much as they have so far for the
internet and mobile phones. In other words, they will not remove a significant part of the need for the
provision and management (in the broadest sense) for access by physical movement.
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