Until a short while ago, mobility policy focused mainly on reducing travelling times. But we have recently come to realise that travelling time reliability is at least as important to travellers, hauliers and shippers. So there is now a new subject on the policy agendas of parties in the mobility sector. The aim of reliability policy is to improve the predictability of travelling times. This will enable waiting times to be cut and connections improved, and will allow businesses to deploy their equipment and staff better. The importance of travelling time reliability for passenger and goods traffic has been acknowledged by government and local authorities. In this regard, the Mobility Memorandum contains a specific ambition to have 95% of rush-hour movements arriving on time by 2020. Local authorities are also formulating ambitious targets in their policy and elaboration memoranda. The question this now raises is how the reliability ambitions can be achieved. They require knowledge on a range of different aspects, such as an understanding of the actual reliability of travelling times and how users rate this. The importance of reliability compared with other quality aspects of the transport system such as speed, safety and the environment must also be established. A thorough knowledge of the operation and effects of tools that can be used to influence reliability is required. (Author/publisher)
Abstract