THE EUROPEAN POLICY FACTOR

The local planner has to work within the legal and political restraints of national transport policies which are likely to be increasingly influenced by European Community policies following the completion of the single market. Market liberalisation is likely to bring a substantial shift in freight traffic from rail to road in the more constrained countries such as Germany. British experience with bus deregulation indicates that it will not reverse trends towards car use. All policies must show environmental concern and power should be exercised at the lowest administrative level at which it can be effective. The conflict might be tackled in three ways: by suppression of environmental impacts at source; by changing to less environmentally damaging modes; or by reducing the total amount of transport. The most positive and least politically difficult solution is that of increasingly stringent technical standards. The type of public transport improvements currently in the pipeline were unlikely to have much effect on the choice of mode and action to reduce the total amount of transport appears to contradict the trend towards economic liberalism. Economic instruments are widely opposed by the road haulage and vehicle manufacturing industries.