This book shows that transport matters. Comprising a series of highly accessible chapters written by respected experts, it reviews key transport issues and explains how and why effective and efficient transport is fundamental to successfully addressing all manner of public policy goals. Contributors explore how we ‘do’ transport, as a result of the technologies available to us and the cultures surrounding how we use them, and examine how this has significant social, economic and environmental consequences. They also provide key recommendations for how we could do things differently to bring about a happier, healthier and more economically secure future for all of us.

Addressing the principles of sustainability, spatial planning, integration, governance and accessibility of transport, this book focuses on the problem of providing efficient and low energy transport systems which serve the needs of everybody. It explores many of the new arguments, ideas and perceptions of mobility and accessibility in city-regions. Looking at evidence from Denmark, Sweden, The Netherlands, Germany and the UK, it considers the meaning of the key concepts of sustainable accessibility, the spatial planning model, and integrated territorial policies.

The report and the TravelMatters website (developed as part of this project) are designed to present information on climate change and to examine how greenhouse gas emissions from transportation may be reduced. Both the print and web-based research products review the capacity of public transportation to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and present this information in a format accessible to transportation professionals and the general public. Key strategies for reducing transportation emissions--increasing the use of transit, changing land-use patterns, and adopting energy-efficient technologies and fuels in transit fleets--are discussed.