Indicators to assess sustainability of transport activities : Part 1: Review of the existing transport sustainability indicators initiatives and development of an indicator set to assess transport sustainability performance

The major focus of this study is the review of the existing transport indicator initiatives of the EU and other international organisations as well as the development of an indicator set to measure sustainability of transport systems. Initially, the major characteristics of environmentally sustainable transport are defined and indicator quality selection criteria and quantitative targets as guideline criteria for selection of transport related indicators are presented. The following parts are dedicated to a review of a number of major EU and international indicator initiatives. On the basis of 10 transport related international initiatives which include EC Sustainable Development Indicators, EC ETIS study, the EEA TERM indicators, Eurostat transport indicators, transport indicator sets from OECD, US EPA, World Bank, UNECE, VTPI as well as taking into account the EC JRC Well-to-Wheel study a set of 55 sustainable transport indicators has been identified. In addition, causal chains among the selected indicators are analysed according to the DPSIR framework. This selection of transport sustainability indicators may serve as a valuable framework for the assessment of European transport sustainability performance and for the development of policy scenarios and strategies to mitigate negative impacts from transport activities. Their use in the so-called "Dashboard of Sustainability" (JRC) will point out areas where transport performance shows particular success or problems in the EU27.