Applying an Alternative Approach for Assessing Sustainable Road Transport: A Benchmarking Analysis on EU Countries

Yongjun Shen,Elke Hermans,Qiong Bao

doi:10.3390/su122410391

Yongjun Shen, Elke Hermans + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410391

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Dec 11, 2020
Citations: 9	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Southeast University, Hasselt University

Abstract

Road transport plays an important role in economic development, trade and social integration. However, it is also responsible for certain negative impacts on environment and society. In order to achieve sustainable development, there is a growing need for a country to assess both the benefits from road transport and its undesirable costs, to compare them with those in other countries and to provide estimates of their future developments. In this research, starting from the identification of relevant factors (both desirable and undesirable), a benchmarking approach is proposed as an alternative way to assess sustainable road transport among the 28 EU countries. Meanwhile, the basic concept of data envelopment analysis (DEA) for benchmarking purpose is further extended to integrate both the desirable achievements and the undesirable costs in evaluation. As a result, an overall road transport sustainability score is computed for the 28 EU countries, which can be further split into two efficiency scores with respect to desirable and undesirable factors, respectively. Furthermore, after applying a clustering analysis that groups countries with inherent similarity in their practices, the model is adopted to identify best-performing and underperforming countries within the cluster, as well as the reference sets for those underperforming ones, based on which valuable insights are gained, enabling decision makers to prioritize their actions towards a more sustainable road transport system in the future.

Highlights

Sustainable transport is a major global challenge facing the whole world
An overall road transport sustainability score is computed for the 28 European Union (EU) countries, which can be further split into two efficiency scores with respect to desirable and undesirable factors, respectively
Flexibility of operations and door-to-door service, road transport has emerged as the dominant segment in Europe’s transport sector, representing roughly 81% of all passenger transport and 49% of freight transport [1]. It is responsible for certain negative impacts on sustainable development, accounting for 82% of the annual transport energy consumption, 72% of the total transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and over 100 times more deaths than all other transportation modes together [1]

Summary

Introduction

Sustainable transport is a major global challenge facing the whole world. Flexibility of operations and door-to-door service, road transport has emerged as the dominant segment in Europe’s transport sector, representing roughly 81% of all passenger transport and 49% of freight transport [1]. It is responsible for certain negative impacts on sustainable development, accounting for 82% of the annual transport energy consumption, 72% of the total transport greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and over 100 times more deaths than all other transportation modes together [1]. In the midterm review of the European Commission’s 2001 transport white paper, the EU renewed the definition of its future transport policy direction: “ mobility is essential to Europe’s prosperity and to the freedom of movement of its citizens, the negative effects of mobility, i.e., energy consumption and impacts on health and the environment, must be reduced” [2]

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