Potential Use of Telematics: A European Road Transport Corridor Typology

The completion of the European market and the resulting opening up of the European space will induce a massive flow of people, goods and information all over Europe. Thus, Europe is increasingly moving towards a complex network economy, in which physical flows of people and goods form the connecting elements. This development has major implications for the transport system in Europe (see Banister et al. 1995; Button et al. 1996). Two major stress phenomena can be envisaged. First, metropolitan and urban areas will — as nodal points in the European networks — face severe economic and environmental externalities from transport. Second, the increasing spatial interaction between European nodes provokes major transport flows on all segments and corridors connecting these nodes. This means that European corridors — especially those between major metropolitan areas or centres of economic activity in Europe — are playing a critical role in the new evolving map of Europe. At the same time it has to be recognized that traffic congestion on many European transport corridors is dramatically increasing, while the environmental implications and the poor safety conditions are also causing unacceptable social costs. Conventional transport policy is apparently unable to keep up with Europe’s growing demand for mobility.