PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

170
Note that while I tend to agree with many of Wixley’s and Lake’s criticisms
launched against EU transport policy, their article unfortunately leaves most of their
assertions empirically unsubstantiated. This is also true for the above-implied direct
trade off between long-distance and short-distance transport. 61
As we have seen in many
of the other sections of this chapter, scholars and practitioners working within other
discursive frameworks would simply disagree with Wixley’s and Lake’s assertion that
sustainable development necessarily includes a reduction in the need to travel. Even very
environmentally-minded political economists are still more likely to argue for a
sustainability definition that would include increased access and mobility of the poor
(which are then preferably to be achieved with less resource-intensive, lower-emission
modes of transport). Wixey’s and Lake’s article is thus a perfect concluding example of
a line of argumentation that is “locked into” a particular discursive framework, i.e. their
key argument is based on definitions, ideological beliefs and premises that are simply not
congruent with those of alternative discursive frameworks.
4.7 Addendum: The “Institutionalist” Focus on EU Space and Governance
Normally, this would conclude our discussion of the different theoretical
approaches to EU transport policy and planning. However, there are several researchers
whom I group under the somewhat awkward sub-heading “institutionalists” whose
contributions deserve at least a brief discussion at this point. These “institutionallyfocused”
researchers concentrate on the central importance of Pan-European transport
61 As we will see in Chapter 9, an argument made with regard to the Budapest ring road is that this EUsupported
local TEN node actually benefits local and regional road traffic more than international traffic,
and that instead the real sustainability problem is that the road capacity investments are not being
complemented by parallel investments into rail-based public transit, thus presenting a further strategic
disadvantaging of rail. Also see Lukács (2001).