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

In the sub-theme relating to benchmarking in transport, a benchmarking exerciseinvolving Mediterranean Countries and EU cities has been carried out in order to assessthe current condition of their transport systems and identify possibilities to improve theseAnother benchmarking exercise has assessed how cycling is currently considered in urbanplanning processes of European cities.In the sub-theme dealing with planning for emergency conditions, research hasprovided a definition and classification of disaster events and has identified incidents whichhave direct or indirect impacts on transport systems. Furthermore, methodologies, modelsand algorithms have been analysed in relation to the definition of probability of theoccurrence of an event, vulnerability and exposure of transport systems, to such incidents,and the analysis of the interaction between supply and demand in case of evacuation.Finally, guidelines for evacuation plans by simulation of transport systems in emergencyconditions have been developed.Finally, research has also identified a number of areas for further investigation:• studies for a more advanced vertical (EU, regional, local) and horizontal (energy,land use, environment) integration between models to provide a very powerful toolto assess regional impacts of European transport policies;• improvement of software codes, data flows, user friendliness and modellingcapabilities of the TRANSTOOLS planning tool;• development of fully-fledged ETIS;• further investigations on the impacts of e-economy on land use;• studies to identify the optimal tax policy under different oil price scenarios;• improvement of the assessment methodologies and creation of practical decisionsupport tools to better tackle urban transport problems;• investigations to get a better understanding of the relations between urbantransport measures and urban development and land use planning;• studies for providing more insight into the impact of demographic change on urbantransport;• introduction of the analysis of marginal opportunity costs of public funds in alreadyexisting models for assessing large energy and transport infrastructures projects;• better understanding of issues concerning social equity and social cohesion andthe development of appropriate policy measures for addressing them;• further benchmarking of transport systems extended to a greater number of citiesin the EU neighbouring countries in order to be able to carry out deep statisticalanalyses and get a better understanding and insight into the problems of theirtransport systems and identify possible areas of interventions;• further studies to develop effective evacuation plans in emergency conditions.Thematic Research Summary: “Decision Support Tools” Page: 7 of 74Transport Research Knowledge Centre