Transport benefits society, but also imposes costs, notably through air pollution, noise and accidents. Besides the effects on the environment and human health, current scientific attention is directed to the social impacts of transportation in urban areas. A set of unit values for a broad range of externality costs (including noise, air pollution, climate change, nature and landscape, and additional costs from upstream and downstream processes) for road transport are provided in this paper. The average total air pollution unit costs for cars estimated in this paper are of the order of 2 cents per vehicle km, while the average total environmental externality unit costs for cars are approaching 9 cents per vehicle km. Similarly, those average total unit costs for heavy vehicles are of the order of 5 cents per tonne km, as opposed to light duty commercial vehicles for which average total unit costs are almost 40 cents per tonne km. The ranges of unit values (and the qualifying assumptions) presented in this paper are a useful starting point for information and debate on this topic. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E208431.
Samenvatting