Transport is an important domain for territorial policies. Transport networks are crucial in providing necessary social and economic opportunities to the European citizen.  The opportunities provided by transport networks are commonly measured in accessibility indicators, which combine information on the level of service provided by transport infrastructure and information on the spatial distribution of people and activities. Accessibility is considered a driving factor of territorial development, as well as a key performance indicator of transport and cohesion policies. Reflecting this important role, a wide range of indicators on trans-European, regional and local accessibility and transport are being produced.

See also : T-NET / TRANSTOOLS  transport network models

The social and economic opportunities offered by Europe’s transport networks

The accessibility indicators, in particular, describe how well the European transport systems perform their role of providing opportunities to connect and interact within the territory of Europe. The currently available indicators are location accessibility, network efficiency, potential accessibility and daily accessibility. Those indicate travel time to a nearest metropole; how well the transport system works in comparison with an optimum network; the number of interaction opportunities available at a certain place; and how much people one may reach within four hours travel time. The available accessibility indicators can be seen on the left side of Fig. 1 and are described in more detail in a recent publication.

The indicators can be computed for past and future periods, and thus allow to understand how future changes in transport networks and population distribution could affect the opportunities that European citizens enjoy. In Fig. 1, the maps on the right hand side indicate the effects of future road network improvements on the above four calculated accessibility indicators.

The relation between urban development and local transport demand

The way in which cities develop is often expected to affect the efficient management of their transportation systems. To better understand the relation between urban form and transport demand, the average daily distances that people travel in Europe is estimated. To do so, everybody in Europe is assumed to travel with the same amount, and with the same reasoning. Given those assumptions, people’s trips are distributed in a so-called spatial interaction model, in which people decide to move to a certain destination based on the travel time to that destination and the destination’s attractiveness. The method is described in more detail in a recent report. An example output of the computed indicator is shown in Fig. 2. It shows that in particular city peripheries can be expected to have high average travel distances.