From Individual Policies to Policy Packaging

Abstract

This paper describes how transport systems in the European Union (EU) are very complex. However, It is increasingly evident that standard policy measures designed to manage these systems are unable to recognize and respond in kind to this complexity and that this has profound implications for the effectiveness and efficiency of policy interventions. Unless some major improvements are made to the manner in which contemporary transport systems are managed and governed, transport policy will be unable to ensure that the daily mobility of people, information and materials within the EU can proceed in a desirable direction, without jeopardizing broader social, economic and environmental objectives. A major barrier to the realization of effective and efficient policy interventions is the continued presence of isolated decision-making on the part of key policy actors. Such isolated thinking can result in situations where several independently-formulated and implemented policy measures are simultaneously enacted within the same location, potentially resulting in contradictory relationships between measures, limited policy effectiveness and wasted resources. Recognizing the need to prevent unintended effects from policy interventions and to exploit the potential benefits of synergetic relationships between complementary measures, this paper presents the conceptual foundations of the EU-FP7 Optimal Policies for Transport in Combination (OPTIC) project. Specifically, the paper outlines a theoretical approach for the systematic combination of individual policy measures in order to improve the effectiveness, acceptability and feasibility of transport policy interventions. Overall, the authors argue that policy packaging can offer a far greater potential for achieving policy targets and objectives than single policy measures deployed in isolation. Yet, a careful and relatively well designed process must be undertaken for such packages to be effective.

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