EUROPEAN TRANSPORT SECTOR NEEDS TO CHANGE
How will Europeans travel in 2030? The question was posed in a debate on future scenarios of road transport during the launch of the “Road Transport futures 2030 initiative”, organised in Brussels by ETRAC (European Road Transport Research Advisory Council).
In 2030 there will be new technologies, more attention to sustainability, but we will certainly not eradicate the need to travel, said the moderator Manuel Battista, of World Highways, Route One Publishing.
Assessing various reports, Professor Mike McDonald, who directed for many years the Transportation Research Group at the University of Southampton, said the transport sector needs to change because of the greater appreciation of climate change issues, the uncertainties about the cost and availability of energy, the uncertainties about economic conditions, the population changes and the consumer expectations. In other words, said Professor McDonald, business as usual is no longer business as usual.
