The objective of this study is to develop a uniform concept for the quantification of the external costs of transport and to calculate those external costs for 17 European countries. Externalities were identified as effects caused outside the market, and should be internalised if they give rise to relevant costs or benefits that citizens, firms or institutions fail to consider when making decisions. It has emerged that external benefits are rare, insignificant and cannot be validly balanced against external costs. The ultimate purpose was to internalise external effects at the level of the user, so that markets would work better. A general methodology was defined and external costs were calculated by mode and by type of effect (accidents, noise, air pollution, climate change) for each of the countries involved in the study (EUR 17) using a 1991 database.
Samenvatting