A sustainable transport system

Transport should be accessible to all, including users for whom access to current transport systems may be restricted for any reason. Transport solutions should also be designed for equality of access when it comes to gender.

Transport should be safe not only for drivers and transport users but also all other road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and other road vehicles. The concept of safety should extend beyond physical safety and if a transport solution is either unsafe for certain groups to use, or perceived to be so, it is not accessible to all.

Transport solutions should be clean and minimise harm to health. Less polluting vehicles contribute to a cleaner environment, with less nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxide and soot particles, particularly in urban areas. Sustainable transport can also contribute to mental health by alleviating stress and other conditions associated with traffic noise, congestion and overcrowding.

For the transport system to be sustainable, it must be decarbonised. This involves breaking the system’s dependency on fossil fuels by switching to other renewable energy sources. Decarbonising transport at the speed and scale required by the Paris Agreement demands rapid and widespread transport and energy infrastructure changes – a shift that calls for bold, coordinated action across the entire transport ecosystem.

Transport systems shall continuously evolve from a productivity perspective. End-to-end transport and logistic systems still contain different forms of waste. With engineering for better energy efficiency and providing real-time data, transport flows can be made more efficient. Routes can be planned and optimised better, load capacity utilisation can be increased and the product and service specification can still be perfected; ultimately, to consume a minimum of resources given the needed output in the shape of moving goods and people.