Title: Walking the green carpet to work

Authors: Aiora Zabala

Addresses: Oxford University Centre for the Environment, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK

Abstract: The use of private cars with low occupancy is increasingly predominant in workers| transport to industrial estates in Valles Occidental County, within the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Spain. This unsustainable trend is already on the political agenda. However, sound theoretical background and methodologies to assess sustainability in the field of transport to industrial estates are scarce. In order to gain insight that may increase the effectiveness of future policies for sustainability, this paper describes a practical example of the application of Multi-Criteria Analysis to the design of effective and adaptive policies. Based on the analysis of an inventory of policy documents and plans, several policy measures are assessed using NAIADE, in order to establish priorities. This evaluation method considers multiple valuation languages and provides solid arguments to design potentially successful policies for sustainable transport. Suggestions for further improvement of the methodology and of practical applications are made.

Keywords: sustainable transport; commuting; industrial estates; multi-criteria analysis; policy planning; policy assessment; transport planning; transport policy; Spain; sustainability; sustainable development.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2009.027529

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2009 Vol.12 No.1, pp.78 - 94

Published online: 28 Jul 2009 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article