Identifying opportunities and pathways for transitions to sustainable transport in Sweden and the UK

Our current road-based land transport systems suffer from a number of intractable problems. These include congestion, emissions of greenhouse gases and local air pollutants, noise, accidents, depletion of resources, and  inaccessibility of amenities and services (e.g., European Commission, 2001a; European Environment Agency, 2006). In respect of climate change, for example, transport is the sector with the highest increase of greenhouse gas emissions in recent decades, rising by 24% between 1990 and 2003 (European Environment Agency, 2005).

Given these problems, and their associated economic, social and environmental impacts, we can conclude that the current transport system is in many respects unsustainable. The concept of ‘sustainability’ is inherently subjective and contested; discussion and decision-making about sustainable futures therefore demands a more participatory and inclusive approach than traditional scientific models of knowledge production or policy assessment (Gibbons et al., 1994; Gibson, Hassan, Holtz, Tansey, & Whitelaw, 2005). Consequently, we have drawn on sustainable transport criteria expressed by policy-makers and other  stakeholders (e.g., European Commission, 2001a; Whitmarsh & Wietschel, 2006) to identify opportunities and propose several pathways of developments towards a more sustainable transport future in Europe. We discuss how these pathways  have emerged and examine to what extent they have developed – and might continue to develop – in two contrasting European countries (Sweden and the UK). Finally, we highlight the importance of co-evolution among the discussed pathways of developments supporting both near term changes as well as being the vehicle enabling more radically different transport solutions.

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