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Decision-making, intermodal

transportation, and sustainable

mobility: towards a new paradigm

Joseph S. Szyliowicz

Introduction

As we enter the twenty-first century it has

become increasingly clear that existing trans-

portation systems throughout the world suffer

from major deficiencies and are not promoting

sustainable development. Every country in the

world recognises the central role that transpor-

tation plays in economic growth and feels

compelled to meet proliferating demands for

mobility because of the pres-

sures imposed by globalisa-

tion. As national economies

become ever more integrated

into a global system, re-

sources and markets are be-

coming more and more

connected through global

supply chains, levels of inter-

national trade and economic

interactions continue to

climb, and existing patterns

are being transformed as

competition becomes in-

creasingly international in

scope. Hence, production, assembly, and out-

sourcing all take place in countries that offer

competitive advantages. Such global markets

require new kinds of transportation systems and

it is increasingly obvious that national develop-

ment no longer depends solely on the ways in

which productive sectors operate but also on

their ability to distribute their products rapidly

and efficiently to international markets. This

requires national transportation systems with

sophisticated port and other infrastructures to

handle international trade.

Concomitantly, modern economic systems,

characterised by increasing pressures to reduce

costs by increasing productivity and reducing

inefficiencies, force attention to the ways in

which transportation is integrated with the

production process. Suppliers have to meet

the needs of their customers in new ways

that frequently place additional demands on

transportation systems.

Hence, such developments

as ‘‘just in time’’ produc-

tion have become com-

monplace as businesses

seek to reduce inventory

costs and transportation

systems are expected to

deliver goods within nar-

row time frames. Passen-

ger transportation is also

subject to similar pres-

sures, as people demand

ever faster, reliable, and

convenient travel service.

Social awareness is also influencing trans-

portation policy everywhere for concerns with

the environment and with the social costs of

existing transportation systems are evident

everywhere. Hence transportation is widely

viewed not merely from a narrow traditional

economic perspective but also in terms of how it

impacts environmental and ecological systems

as well as the society as a whole, and the rural

poor in particular (World Bank 1996).

Joseph S. Szyliowicz is a Professor at the

Graduate School of International Studies,

University of Denver and Founder of the

University’s Intermodal Transportation

Institute. He is the recipient of several

awards for his work in transportation, has

been a visiting scholar at numerous

institutions, served as a consultant to

various national and international orga-

nizations and authored or co-authored

numerous books, reports and articles.

E-mail: jszyliow@du.edu

ISSJ 176 rUNESCO 2003. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

Sustainability and

transportation

Although sustainability can be defined in many

different ways, it has been suggested that policy

should be based on three general principles

(Daly 1990):

(1) Renewable resources should not be used

faster than their regeneration rates.

(2) Non-renewable resources should not be used

faster than substitutes become available.

(3) Pollution emissions should not exceed the

assimilative capacity of the environment.

The transportation sector, however, universally

violates all of these criteria.

To begin with, transportation systems

consume enormous amounts of materials of all

kinds. They require millions of tons of concrete

and steel to build highways, airports, and other

facilities, and also millions of tons of plastic and

ferrous and non-ferrous metals to build the

vehicles that use the infrastructure. Even more

important is the degree to which the transporta-

tion sector consumes non-renewable resources

in the form of fossil fuels, notably petroleum.

Globally, this sector consumes more than 60%

of the world’s total oil products. Oil now

accounts for 98% of all energy utilized by

transportation, an increase from 92% in 1960.

Within the sector, motorised transport accounts

for over 80% of all the oil used, aviation

accounts for about 15%, rail and shipping for

the remainder (OECD 1996). Many govern-

ments have attempted to design policies to

promote the use of other sources of energy for

transportation but these efforts have obviously

had little impact, despite the potential of new

technologies and such policies as efficiency fuel

standards and travel demand management.

With the continuing – and increasing –

dominance of highway transportation in the

OECD countries and its rapid and growing

diffusion in the non-Western world, it should

not be surprising that the use of oil continues to

rise inexorably while few new fields are being

discovered. As a result, experts agree that, at

current levels of consumption, the world is

rapidly running out of oil: the best current

estimates are that existing world oil resources

would cover consumption for another 35–50

years. Such forecasts, however, are question-

able: in fact, the world will probably never run

out of oil since diminishing supplies will lead to

higher prices, the exploitation of hitherto non-

economic fields and sources (such as oil shale

and tar sands) and increasing reliance upon

alternative energy sources. However, the price of

oil will undoubtedly rise. Furthermore, the

seriousness of the present situation should not

be underestimated for oil tends to come from

politically unstable regions (notably the Persian

Gulf with two-thirds of the world’s proven

reserves) thus raising important questions about

national security for many countries. And a

repetition of the high price volatility of the 1970s

with its unsettling effects upon national econo-

mies cannot be ruled out.

This heavy reliance upon oil also has

important environmental implications for it

leads to a tremendous amount of pollution.

There are three major areas of concern. The first

is air pollution caused locally by carbon mon-

oxide, unburned hydrocarbons and lead (in

those areas where leaded gasoline continues to

be used), and more globally by carbon dioxide,

from motorised vehicles. Studies have demon-

strated that transportation is responsible for

almost 90% of carbon monoxide emissions and

a large percentage of other pollutants. This is

particularly evident in large cities throughout

the world. The second is noise pollution, which

inflicts psychological and physiological damage

upon people. The third is water pollution which

is caused indirectly by the seepage of fuels and

other contaminants at airports, garages, filling

stations and the like, and directly through the

use of waterways (Dron & de Lara 1995).

Furthermore, these impacts are not limited

geographically. On the contrary, they are felt

regionally as well as locally, often crossing

national boundaries to damage forests, water

resources and crops far from the pollution

source. And their cumulative effects are also

felt at the global level for they contribute in

major ways to ozone depletion and global

warming.

The numerous other ways in which existing

transportation systems are not consonant

with sustainability also deserve consideration.

They consume vast amounts of land for roads,

airports, and railroads and more for parking

facilities, manufacturing and maintenance plants.

186 Joseph S. Szyliowicz

rUNESCO 2003.

Over 65% of Los Angeles is paved. Furthermore,

automobiles have created urban sprawl, which in

turn generates additional demands for transpor–

tation that can be met only by more automobiles.

The increasing reliance upon this mode of

transport also has negative consequences for

social life. Although automobiles provide people

with freedom and mobility, they do so only for

those who can utilise them. Such groups as the

poor, the elderly, the handicapped can easily be

marginalised and isolated from community life if

alternative transportation modes are not avail-

able. In short, transportation can isolate groups

and regions from the mainstream and poorly

devised highway and other infrastructural pro-

jects can carve up communities as happened

frequently during the interstate construction

phase in the US in the 1970s. Also, the large

number of traffic fatalities and accidents that

occur every day and the heavy costs imposed by

congestion cannot be ignored (OECD 1996).

What is particularly significant is that these

negative trends show no signs of abating; on the

contrary, they are actually accelerating, creating

difficult dilemmas for anyone concerned with

achieving sustainable development. The data are

compelling. Globally, the number of people and

the amount of freight moving by road continue

to increase. Although the proportion of trips by

automobile has remained constant in the OECD

countries, increased mobility translates into a

substantial growth in personal automobile

travel. In the US, for example, intercity passen-

ger traffic by automobile increased by 57%

between 1980 and 1996 whereas rail passenger

traffic rose by only 26%. In the rest of the world,

private automobile usage is growing extremely

fast: in China, for example, by 100% a year.

Similarly, freight is moving increasingly by road.

In Europe, 51% of freight movements were by

road in 1970 as compared with 70% in 1990

(OECD 1996).

Clearly, existing transportation systems in

the developed world are unsustainable and their

present course promises to exacerbate what is

already a dangerous situation. And, the devel-

oping countries are replicating the patterns of

the West, with all their destructive character-

istics. Sa

˜o Paulo, for example, has more than

twice as many cars as New York City. Cairo,

Bangkok, Manila, and Mexico City, to cite but a

few illustrations, are among the most polluted

and congested cities in the world. The con-

sequences of this situation have been vividly

described as follows:

Major changes are needed in the priorities for transporta-

tion policy in the Third World if development is to meet

human needs rather than benefit only the current elite

groups. The costs of failing to redirect transport policies

today will be paid in the decades to come through a sharply

reduced quality of life in the world. As cities grow, one can

anticipate increased conflict between the mobile elite and

the mobility restricted poor, and reduced capacity to solve

the problems of capital shortages, unpayable debt burdens,

toxic air pollution, and global climate change. (Replogle

1991: 7)

The role of intermodalism

The changes required by the current unsustain-

able configuration must be based on a new vision

of transportation and the development of

theoretical and empirical approaches that make

possible the creation of sustainable transporta-

tion systems. Such a system must be based on the

principle of intermodalism. It has become

evident in recent years that a system of

unintegrated and uncoordinated modes no long-

er suffices to meet national economic needs, let

alone the other dimensions of sustainability. It

cannot meet the growing demands for greater

personal mobility and the movement of ever

larger amounts of freight. In addition, as noted

earlier, this system possesses severe bottlenecks

and imposes heavy social and environmental

costs upon populations everywhere. Accord-

ingly there is a great need to pursue ways of

developing mobility solutions that utilise each

mode’s commercial and technical advantages so

as to create an intermodal system that minimises

negative impacts and enhances the productivity

of local, regional, national, and international

transportation systems. Such a system would be

characterised by efficient connections, choices

for passengers and shippers, coordination be-

tween modes, and cooperation between govern-

ment agencies at all levels and the private sector.

It would benefit young and old alike, stimulate

the economy, and promote sustainable develop-

ment by enhancing efficiency, safety, mobility,

and equity. Although great advances have been

made on the freight side in the US and on the

passenger side in Europe, much remains to be

Decision-making, intermodal transportation, and sustainable mobility 187

rUNESCO 2003.

done before passenger and freight intermodal

systems are truly operative anywhere. Why a

shift to intermodalism is essential has been

summarised as follows.

Just as an ecological system is healthiest when it displays

great diversity and differentiation, so too is a transporta-

tion system healthiest and most robust when diverse modal

options are available to those moving people or goods.

A transportation system dependent on only one or two

modes of transportation is far more susceptible to

inefficiency, disruption, and system failure than is one in

which numerous different modes are allowed to operate.

(Replogle 1991: 2)

Intermodalism, however, is not synon-

ymous with sustainability. At its best, it is a

necessary but not a sufficient condition for one

can envisage an intermodal system that is truly

efficient and not subject to breakdown but which

does not possess all the attributes of sustain-

ability. A sustainable transportation system

must be more than economically efficient and

intermodal transportation system can be rea-

lised unless the public is educated to the promise

of intermodalism and accepts the importance of

engaging in the kinds of behaviours that are

required to see one come into being. It is the

public that an intermodal system is designed to

serve, it is the public that influences decisions

concerning transportation projects and policies,

and it is the public that will make a new

transportation system an effective one. But

more than public awareness and support is

required. An intermodal system also needs

persons who are educated in intermodalism,

who possess the skills required to help plan,

manage, and operate such a system. At present it

is widely acknowledged that there is a shortage

of such people; most transportation education in

North America, Europe, and other developed

countries is still modal in orientation and the

situation in the developing world is much worse.

Few programmes anywhere focus on intermod-

alism or provide the kind of total systems

188 Joseph S. Szyliowicz