Decision Support Tools - Thematic Research Summary - Transport ...

States 5 , as well as on the establishment of a standardised approach for transportmodelling in the European Union (MOTOS, 2007). Research has produced an enhancedEuropean transport network model covering passenger and freight transport (includingintermodal transport) (TRANSTOOLS, 2008)Finally, a further research objective has been the development of information platformsand initiatives to provide policy makers with useful information for their activities. Researchwas motivated by the need for creating reference points to discuss issues and makeavailable information and data to help policy-makers to perform more effective andsubstantiated impact assessments. In particular, these activities have focused on maritimetransport (MTCP, 2007), sustainable urban transport systems (NICHES, 2007; ECOCITY,2005), intermodal passenger transport (KITE), road safety (SafetyNet, 2009; PENDANT,2006; RANKERS, 2008), cycling (BYPAD, 2008), transport infrastructure cost estimationand charge calculation (GRACE, 2008; IMPRINT-NET, 2008), policy support andassessment tools (TRANSFORUM, 2007), and on issues concerning institutionalarrangements and interactions in the implementation of transport policies (TIPP, 2005).4.3.3 Research results4.3.3.1 European transport information systemsA pilot version of ETIS has been developed by a cluster of three projects: ETIS-BASE,ETIS-AGENT and ETIS-LINK. The former issue of this TRS (EXTR@Web, 2006) reviewedresearch carried out by the first two projects. ETIS-BASE has developed the ETIS systemreference database, which gathers, harmonises and makes available transport data andinformation covering the EU 25, while ETIS-AGENT has developed the interface of theETIS system which allows policy makers to make queries on policies, policy-specificperformances, and performance indicators. The role of ETIS-LINK has been to guide andcoordinate the development of the system ensuring the quality and usefulness of thesystem, to promote the ETIS concept to potential users, getting their consensus, and toencourage an effective up-take of the results by the Commission, Member States andother users. The joint activities carried out by this cluster of projects have led to thecreation of the Pilot ETIS to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept of ETIS and itsusefulness as a decision support tool to European policy-makers. This pilot, which hasbeen successfully demonstrated and has attracted the interest of a number of MemberStates, already provides the core elements of (“the complete”) ETIS (ETIS-LINK, 2005),5Model developers in the new Member States are faced with poor availability of data anda lack of adequate tools. As a consequence, policy makers are not confident about theappropriateness of the impact assessment of socioeconomic and environmentalindicators.Thematic Research Summary: “Decision Support Tools” Page: 32 of 74Transport Research Knowledge Centre