National transport policy in Austria – from its beginning till today

Abstract

Introduction The objective of the paper is to research the historic development of the Austrian transport policy. It explores when a transport strategy was made for the first time, from whom, and which purpose was pursuit. It shows how the objectives of the transport strategy changed over time and when passenger and freight transport took over to become the main focus of the planning process. Furthermore it is researched when, and if, there was a change from a solely sectorial mono-modal transport strategy (road, rail separated) towards an integrated transport planning process and when, and if, there was a development away from a demand-fulfillment-driven transport planning paradigm towards a transport-demandmanagement driven transport planning strategy. Methods The information used stemmed from an analysis of existing transport master plans and other political documents and reports published in Austria within the last decades. In a subsequent step the results of this analysis are assessed against the so called BIdeal Decision Making Process^(IDMP) developed in former research activities, and shows in a clear way how the transport strategy in Austria evolved and improved over time. Results Comprehensive overview of the development of Austria's transport strategy over time including all means of transport. ConclusionThe Austrian transport strategy evolved over the last 40 years from a sectorial, demand-fulfillment-driven transport strategy towards an integrated multi-modal, demand-management-driven transport strategy including some environmental issues. Further, an outlook is provided in which direction the national transport planning strategies should be developed to be able to tackle future challenges such economic, social and ecologic sustainability.

Planning for fauna-sensitive road design: A review

“…There is a significant body of research into the environmental aspects of transport planning and policy. Research effort within this field was most heavily focused on European countries (see Damarad and Bekker, 2003;Trocmé 2005;Pettersson 2013;Emberger 2017;Sobolewska-Mikulska, 2019;Papp et al, 2022). This may be attributed to two key interrelated factors.…”

“…245). In consequence, these have contributed to suboptimal strategic landscape assessments through the setting of unbalanced objectives and poor integration with the transport planning process (Emberger, 2017;Löfgren et al, 2018;Rega et al, 2018;Papp et al, 2022).…”

“…Insights from Europe suggest that the foremost concern is a conflict with the economic interests of involved stakeholders (Gudmundsson and Sørensen, 2013;May 2015). The second was institutionalised interests, mainly about the political motivations of key policy actors (Antonson and Åkerskog, 2015;Emberger, 2017). The final was policy strength, in particular the meaning and quality of the terminology used within the legal context, and the way this was applied (i.e., procedural pathway); these have a profound influence on the interpretation, effectiveness, efficiency, and enforceability of policy by planners and scholars alike (Mallard and François, 2013;Igondova et al, 2016;Enríquezde-Salamanca, 2018).…”

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“…Meanwhile in the context of rural areas and on the nationwide scale, it still remains relatively novel. The first Austrian national transport master plan to include measurable targets (including the reduction of CO2 emissions) was published in 2013 [ 10 ]. The latest national mobility master plan [ 5 ] is the first one to include a path showing the necessary reduction of vehicle-kilometres travelled by private cars in line with the goal of climate neutrality in 2040.…”

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