Transportation planning for sustainable development

Over many decades transportation and traffic have grown at a steady pace, and this trend is likely to continue because of a combination of various demand and supply factors [Grübler, 1993], especially in urban areas in both the industrialised and industrialising world. At the same time the negative impacts from transportation have become a global issue. They may be classified as impacts on air, water resources and land as well as impacts on biosystems (see for a detailed discussion on these impacts a/o [Whitelegg, 1997]). Transportation planning theory traditionally relies a/o on the equilibration theory of Manheim [Manheim, 1979]. Here a transportation system is said to be tightly interrelated with the socioeconomic system. The transportation system (supply) will affect the way in which the socioeconomic system grows or changes (demand) and vice-versa the socio-economic system will call for changes in the transportation system