Most western countries have been hit by severe and long-lasting stagnation after a period of steady economic growth during the 1950s and 1960s. Economic growth has not only been brought to a standstill but many societal developments have become highly unstable. The end of the continuous economic growth has had dramatic effects upon society: high unemployment rates, declining incomes, excessive budget deficits, cuts in public spending, and so on. At the same time, a number of structural changes have been introduced, such as: technological innovations in micro-electronics, reduction of population growth, changing household structures, increasing female labour force participation. In view of its strong links with individual activity patterns, it is hardly surprising that the transportation sector has also been affected by these changes. The effects on transportation and spatial mobility have been three-fold: previous trends in travel patterns have been interrupted or even reversed; new policy goals, issues and priorities have emerged; and finally, a need arose for new methods and techniques with which to predict future travel patterns under the new circumstances. Realizing the necessity to re-think the tasks of transportation planning and to update its methodology, the Dutch Transportation Planning Research Colloquium organized an international conference on `transportation and stagnation: challenges for planning and research'. This was held on 14-16 December 1983 at Zandvoort, The Netherlands, and many experts from various countries presented papers on the theme. The present book grew from papers presented at that conference. A number of these were selected and then substantially revised in order to improve the coherence and balance of the book. For the covering abstract of the proceedings of the conference, published in 1984, see IRRD 276520. This book is an updated version of PB 23120.
Abstract