PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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Policy arguments in favor for less long-distance travel have also been made in the
direct context of EU transport policy. For example, in their short article “Transport
Policy in the EU: A Strategy for Sustainable Development,” Sarah Wixey and Steve Lake
(1998) also stress the reduction of travel as the central aspect of any sustainable transport
policy. Moreover, Wixey’s and Lake’s article is useful in spelling out antianthropocentric
arguments for EU transport policy. In their definitional section (p. 2),
Wixey and Lake argue that
In practice, much of what passes for policy on ‘sustainable development’ has a much
narrower remit. The chief focus of much policy claiming to be ‘sustainable’ is on
issues more usefully placed under the category of ‘quality of life.’ [However,]
sustainable development goes beyond a shallow environmental approach or short term
concern for living standards. This paper is implicitly concerned with sustainability
which may in general underpin debates over quality of life, but which addresses a
global concern with limited resources and capacities. The differences are in matters of
scope, in that sustainable development deals with a broader range of issues not all
necessarily linked to questions of human welfare.
In their subsequent discussion of EU transport policy, they come to the same
conclusion I come to in this study, namely that “sustainable transport policy is largely
subordinated to issues of ‘economic growth’ [and that] this seems to be the current
approach taken to the issue of transport in the European Union” (p.3). In particular, they
argue that
Commitments to sustainable development declared in the Maastricht Treaty and the
Fifth Environmental Action Programme (5EAP) cannot be maintained with the EU’s
current TEN policy programme. The EU’s priority projects favour long distance
mobility, gained at the expense of shorter distance transport. [By contrast] even a
fairly basic appreciation of the notion of sustainable development would surely
involve a commitment to reduction of the need to travel.