ECOTALE - External costs of transport and Land Equalisation

he reduction and/or internalization of the environmental, spatial and social costs caused by the transport sector are policy objectives which have been commonly assumed over the last decades. Within a market approach and according to the “polluter pays” principle, internalization is a way toward a comprehensive payment actually born by the transport users. In the “classic” vision, this is obtained by means of some additional pricing ( tolls, vignette, park pricing, vehicle/fuel taxation) imposed to citizens/enterprises generating road traffic. However, incompleteness of the application of direct pricing and a missing or only partial link with modal policies, spatial planning and infrastructural decisions limit the internalization policies in terms of their ability to reach improvements of the sustainability of the transport systems over the time. To foster the planning and investment approach to transport internalization (i.e. reallocation of public resources in the context of spatial planning, infrastructural decisions and modal policies) Regions and Cities require/will be provided with a knowledge base created from real experiences and a set of methodological and analytical tools to guide and support plans and policies. ECOTALE project aims at integrating the traditional approach based on the “economic" internalization of external costs (i.e. pricing measures) with a wider internalization approach considering land use and environmental planning as well. ECOTALE promotes the exchange, sharing and transfer of policy experience, knowledge and good practices in the field of the internalization of external cost of transport, planning and investment decisions.