Transport policy and policy research: some concluding remarks.

Publication: German Policy Studies

Publication Date: 01-OCT-02

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COPYRIGHT 2002 Southern Public Administration Education Foundation, Inc.

Introduction

As a conclusion to this special issue on transport policy research, we want to come back to the question of what is the gain of policy research for the specific needs of the field of transport policy.

Opening this volume, we have outlined some three general axes of research interest we consider especially interesting for the present object of analysis. We have argued that the questions of coordination, of policy design, and of innovation are somewhat inherent to the field of transport policy.

First, coordination is a major issue in transport policy as it is a pronouncedly interdependent field of public action, not only interlinked with planning, housing, and land-use policy, but in a much wider sense subject of foreign policy, economic policy, and regional equalization attempts to name just a few.

The question of policy design, then, is relevant for every public policy, of course. In the field of transport policy, however, we have argued that the chosen instruments are of special interest for the following reasons: first, as already pointed out, transport policy has many cross-sectoral implications, which makes its goals largely interdependent. The policy design, thus, not only has to influence individual and societal behavior in one direction, but in many directions at the same time, thereby taking into account the cross-sectional character of the policy. Second, transport policy is treating the general societal phenomenon of mobility--the very nature of today's society rather than a mere characteristic. Transport policy treats a core trait of the modern world. It cannot be the goal, therefore, to change mobility itself, but rather the patterns of mobility in order to find a way to make the said nature of today's society compatible with actual society. Sustainability in this understanding is besides its already broad meaning also a question of speed--social, economic, and regarding the use of natural resources. This complexity of political goals in transport policy makes the question of policy design outstandingly interesting for policy research.

Finally, it is for the same reason that we consider the question of innovation a third major stake for the analysis of transport policy. Transport is a field, which is almost as much subject to technical innovation as is the field of information technologies. This important technological progress offers great opportunities, but embraces also threats. The...

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