Mobility and transport contribute significantly to our prosperity. But these benefits are also offset by costs. These costs are largely borne by those who cause them. However, there are also costs that are not borne by those causing them. These are external costs, such as environmental costs, accident costs and congestion costs, as well as infrastructure costs. Because these costs are not charged to the party causing them, they are not factored into individuals’ and companies’ mobility and transportation decisions. The estimation of these external costs is the subject of this project.
In doing so, we looked first at the current magnitude of the costs (partial report 1) and also at the expected development of these costs in the period up to 2050 (partial report 2).
Partial report 1: The price of a trip – 2022 Edition In this report, we present the external and infrastructure costs of mobility and transportation in the Netherlands in 2018. We do this for a wide range of modes of transportation, ranging from bicycles to airplanes and trucks to ocean-going vessels.
This report is an update of the study ‘External costs and infrastructure costs of traffic: an overview for the Netherlands in 2010’. A great deal of attention was paid to updating the methodology and the valuation figures, based on new scientific insight. In terms of magnitude, urban congestion is a significant new cost.
Partial report 2: Multiyear forecast The price of a trip – exploratory analysis up to 2050 In this report, we explore how the external and infrastructure costs of mobility and transport in the Netherlands might develop in the period up to 2050 (focus years: 2030, 2040 and 2050). In terms of methodology, this multiyear forecast study is fully consistent with The price of a trip – 2022 Edition, allowing the results for future years to be compared one-to-one with the 2018 estimates. Obviously, the fact that this is a scenario analysis does lead to more significant uncertainties in the outcome.