ABSTRACT
This chapter examines why the step change towards more sustainable behaviour is, as yet, only happening in limited circumstances. Sustainable transport policy needs to offer new ways of addressing accessibility and new approaches to resource allocation and engagement to improve the infrastructure for slow or active modes of travel. Chapter 4 highlighted the tools that national government’s have at their disposal to steer attention towards sustainability objectives. National level policies are cloaked in the rhetoric of sustainability and, often, strong targets are set to reduce consumption or emission levels. Fairly robust datasets are collected at EU and national levels that show the trends towards and away from sustainable development and sustainable behaviour patterns. Despite the policy attention to sustainability progress, in most cases, it is slow and almost due to serendipity. Since the behaviour of individuals and market actors has not noticeably changed, this chapter presumes that the opportunity agenda of constraints and incentives supplied by the state is the key to understanding this failure. This chapter focuses on why, despite all the efforts to address profligate resource consumption in transport, there is so little progress on resource reduction. The chapter attempts to uncover the answers to the following questions by examining the findings from European research on transport policy implementation to identify where the policy failure lies.
