An Overview of the Progress Towards Sustainable Transport Development by Using TERM Indicators

Abstract

A sustainable transport system is one of the greatest challenges in the pursuit of sustainable development. A wide range of environmental problems has to be solved in ways that are compatible with social and economic goals. The transport sector has already taken a lot of measures to reduce the burden on the environment. In order to achieve an environmentally and socially sustainable transport system, more action is needed. The integration of environmental concerns into policies and decision-making has to be extended and deepened. There is no doubt that if something can be measured, it can be managed, so the success of current and future integrated policies can only be judged by identifying key indicators that can be tracked and compared with concrete policy objectives (benchmarking). A TERM is a proposed reporting tool on transport and environment, which has been developed by the European Commission and European Environmental Agency. Under the TERM, annual indicator-based reports are produced as a tool to assist policy makers with the assessment of the effectiveness of strategies. The proposed indicators can help in the assessment of policy-level strategies and the level of goal achievements. The aim of this article is to review the effect of sustainable policy implementation based on the TERM indicators in the latest report and draw some conclusions and recommendations how to go ahead to reach the goals assumed in the long-term perspective by 2050.