ECOTALE: External Costs of Transport and Land Equalization project
The reduction and/or internalization of the environmental, spatial and social costs caused by the transport sector are policy objectives which have been commonly assumed over the last decades. Within a market approach and according to the “polluter pays” principle, internalization is a way toward a comprehensive payment actually born by the transport users. In the “classic” vision, this is obtained by means of some additional pricing (tolls, vignette, park pricing, vehicle/fuel taxation) imposed to citizens/enterprises generating road traffic. However, incompleteness of the application of direct pricing and a missing or only partial link with modal policies, spatial planning and infrastructural decisions limit the internalization policies in terms of their ability to reach improvements of the sustainability of the transport systems over the time.
ECOTALE aims at setting up modelling tools to implement them in real case studies
To foster the planning and investment approach to transport internalization (i.e. reallocation of public resources in the context of spatial planning, infrastructural decisions and modal policies) Regions and Cities will be provided with a knowledge base created from real experiences and a set of methodological and analytical tools to guide and support plans and policies.
EU regional and local authorities will be provided with practical guidelines and methodologies
ECOTALE project aims at integrating the traditional approach based on the “economic" internalization of external costs (i.e. pricing measures) with a wider internalization approach considering land use and environmental planning as well. ECOTALE promotes the exchange, sharing and transfer of policy experience, knowledge and good practices in the field of the internalization of external cost of transport, planning and investment decisions.
ECOTALE partners' organizations
It is considered to be the oldest university in the Western world. The Department of Architecture and Spatial Planning is deeply involved in the integration of sustainability principles to planning tools and implementation. It will put its past experiences in terms of urban and transport planning methodologies, studies, tools, practices within ECOTALE through the involvement of the researchers of the Department of Transport Planning, with whom it traditionally cooperates on the themes of transport plans and regulations. Unibo will be the Lead Partner (LP) and responsible for the overall and day by day financial management of the whole ECOTALE Project and for the submission of Progress Reports to the responsible Authorities of European Commission.
It is a public authority with competence on transport and planning of land use. In particular the General Directorate for infrastructural networks, logistics and mobility system is responsible for analysis, research in the transport and logistics field, transport sustainability and logistics planning in the region, supporting the Regional Ministry of Transport. It participated in several INTERREG projects dedicated to transport sustainability (freight and people).
L'Institut Paris Region, France
It will be responsible for the exchange of experiences dedicated to the identification and analysis of good practices. L'Institut Paris Region has a large experience in the design of planning projects which aim to favour interaction between land use and transport in the Paris region. In ECOTALE, the role of L'Institut Paris Region is clearly positioned as a "research center". Its contribution will include the identification and analysis of experiences, case studies and best practices conducted by all partners in the past or in process as well as the production of guidelines. L'Institut Paris Region will provide with methodologies and tools for integrated land use transport planning and evaluation. Another contribution to the project will concern the exchanges about land use transport interaction modelling and new methodologies to take into account external costs in socio-economic multi-criteria analysis.
The Aalto University was created from the merger of three Finnish universities: The Helsinki School of Economics, Helsinki University of Technology and The University of Art and Design Helsinki. Most relevant competencies include research and development in transportation infrastructure, transportation demand and supply, interaction between land use and transportation, as well as policy studies in land use and transportation. It will be in charge of reporting best practices and disseminating results that deal with externalities of modal policies, transportation-land use policy integration methods, and transportation infrastructure decision making procedures.
Mancomunitat de la Ribera Alta, Spain
It is a regional entity made up of 35 municipalities of the Ribera Alta region. It took part in several European projects, whose main object was the Ribera region. It has experience in mobility items: a public bicycle system, a regional mobility plan, and the sustainable mobility is one of their priorities.
The Thessaloniki Public Transport Authority (THEPTA), Greece
It is a public administration body of the Greater Metropolitan Area of Thessaloniki under the Central Government Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks. THEPTA‘s main role is to define the public transport policy framework for the city and implement an integrated package of policy guidelines as well as to plan and promote mobility management measures. It is the sole private bus operator in Thessaloniki. In the near future THEPTA will have to plan and organise public transport services on a new intermodal basis. It will also undertake actions to reduce the external costs of private transport in the area. It may become the authority in charge to implement congestion charging in co-operation with the local authorities.
Institute of Logistics and Warehousing (ILiM), Poland
ILiM is widely acknowledged as Poland's centre of competence in logistics, providing support for national policy-making in the fields of e-business and logistics. ILiM contribution will deal with the identification and elaboration of best practices, the definition and testing of guidelines as well as cooperating with regional stakeholders in order to create value from the project for the region.
It is one of the largest Polish cities, with a population over 500,000 inhabitants. Participation in ECOTALE project may exchange experience of activities related to make the transport more sustainable. Poznan may also identify opportunities to implement good practices in Polish cities, including analysis of legal possibilities and their effectiveness. Best practices can also be tested in Poznan. Owned by the Poznan contacts with other cities in Poland will help to disseminate knowledge gathered in the project among stakeholders in the country.
Central Transdanubian Regional Development Agency, Hungary
The main activity of CTNC is to provide technical assistance for development projects of municipalities and other regional actors such as universities, cluster initiatives, business associations in the Central Transdanubia region of Hungary. Promoting sustainable forms of mobility and traffic, preserving the environment are one of those thematic priorities which have special focus and interest for CTNC.
This page is linked to the following category :
Mobility