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Although delivery of goods is vitally important for residents and industries in urban areas, the presence and operations of goods transport vehicles in urban areas are often regarded more as a nuisance than an essential service. Relatively little has been done by many governments to facilitate the essential flows of goods in urban areas and to reduce the adverse impacts of urban goods transport on the communities being served. This has resulted in increasing problems associated with goods delivery including competition with passenger transport for access to road infrastructure and space for parking/delivery facilities. How should OECD countries deal with the difficult challenges they face in this area?

This report analyses measures taken in many cities in the OECD area and provides recommendations for dealing with these challenges.

As the land transport task, especially road is expected to increase significantly, by 2015, it would hardly be surprising that many policy makers will look to some form of urban transport environmental control long before this date. One method is via the introduction of a set of operational environmental hurdles. This is not a new concept. However, this paper proposes a new environmental initiative for urban transport operations. The scheme which is simple for both operators and regulators proposes an effective and meaningful operational rating system which reflects the efforts an operator may go to in their internal fleet environmental policies in purchasing equipment, daily workload planning, waste disposals policies etc.

The three tiered environmental operator performance rating scheme, the E-plus scheme has three levels of operator segmentation. A good basic auditable level of environmental compliance, an E rating, an excellent rating E plus, and an exceptional rating would be an E double plus. Probably no fleets currently in Australia would earn a double plus rating at this time.

Why should there be a road transport operator environmental rating scheme? Firstly as a measurable benchmark for the community and the fleet operators themselves. Secondly and a factor of growing importance is for the customers who are the buyers of freight services. Already customers are specifying in their tender requirements that transport operator environmental competencies and capabilities be listed. This may aid the selection of an operator for a specific task. For example; food sensitive freight handling may require specific food certification scheme adoption such as the HACCP classification system. Similarly an urban courier contract may specify, environmental credentials which sit under an ISO 14000 framework. However, what more specific operator differentiation criteria can be requested by the customer? The E plus system is being designed for this very purpose. In Australia some regulators and teaching centres have begun to take an interest in this transport operator framework.

Purpose — This chapter provides an overview of contemporary perspectives on transport disadvantage. Definitions of transport disadvantage from the literature are brought together and differing frameworks are discussed. The chapter also examines research topics concerning forced car ownership and coping behaviours related to transport disadvantage.

Methodology — Methodology concerns the review of existing research literature.

Findings — Transport disadvantage is a complex, multidimensional construct brought about by the interaction between land use patterns, the transport system and individual circumstances. Although the majority of literature focuses on transport disadvantage imposed by not owning a car, research into ‘forced’ car ownership suggests that the high costs of owning and running a car can impose transport disadvantage through financial stress. Using alternative modes to the car, getting lifts or restricting travel and access are common coping strategies to deal with transport disadvantage.

Purpose — This chapter presents the methods used to explore transport issues in the study questionnaire. It outlines how transport disadvantage was measured and how transport issues such as forced car ownership, coping strategies, residential location choice and fuel price impacts are explored.

Methodology — The focus of the chapter is methodology description rather than analysis. Questionnaire design is the major method adopted. Much of this is based on previous approaches documented in the research literature.

Findings — Both objective (e.g. trip rates) and subjective methods (self-reported access problems) are used to measure transport disadvantage. The latter included exploring a series of possible problems with travel. A quadrant analysis measuring both the importance and the level of difficult respondents had with aspects of travel was adopted to explore transport disadvantage in more depth. Transport disadvantage was also explored with regard to difficulties in accessing activities due to transport problems. A range of other questions were developed to explore issues of low/zero-car ownership, forced car ownership, coping strategies, residential location choice and fuel price impacts.

This chapter introduces the scope and contents of Women, Work and Transport. The situation concerning the extent of women’s participation in the transport workforce worldwide is detailed and the challenges facing women transport workers in different world regions and transport modes is highlighted. The chapter describes the structure, contents and key contributions of each of the 21 chapters that are presented in this volume and signposts readers to key material. Although the chapter necessarily highlights some of the many challenges women face when working in highly masculine cultures, this wide-ranging international collection of evidence of the experiences of women transport professionals in both the Global North and Global South also provides numerous suggestions for how employers, governments and trade unions can address, and ultimately overcome, gender segregation in transport. The chapters acknowledge the dramatic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the transport sector, while also pointing to some of the opportunities provided by new greener forms of transport and automation, as well as noting the risks for women workers.

Unplanned urban mobility causes negative effects on the population and the environment. This study aims to understand how higher education institutions (HEIs) are managing the transportation issues related to their activities and how they are implementing actions towards more sustainable practices in this regard.

A systematic review and bibliometric analysis were performed using the Proknow-C method, and the bibliographic portfolio was evaluated to answer guiding questions about distribution of articles over the years and around the world, the most relevant and frequent topics, the travel behavior of university life and the main methodologies used. The meta-analysis was modeled using a programming language in R to execute Bibliometrix package.

Sharing systems, active transport, public transport, urban planning, car parking management and travel behavior are the most relevant topics related to sustainable mobility in HEIs. Different strategies to reduce car use are adopted, and the geographic location of the university and the availability of housing and shopping services in close proximity directly influence travel patterns. As a result, seven guidelines and strategic actions associated were proposed to promote the engagement of institutions in the development of sustainable transport and guide future studies about new solutions to promote sustainable university commutes.

This paper presents a new perspective by performing a critical literature review based on the experiences reported by several isolated studies on the subject. Initiatives of sustainable transport guidelines can be used by academics, urban planners, higher education administrators and other stakeholders to make universities more environmentally friendly, inclusive and accessible.