Abstract
The urban traffic problem embraces ethical evaluations regarding environmental and health risks, environmental responsibility for global warming, social justice, and economic justice concerning the appropriation and redistribution of public monies. It also concerns an epistemic analysis regarding knowledge, science and the use of professional skills and competence. In Europe and in the US urban settlements and mobility patterns are significantly different and so should the consequent traffic policies be, especially those regarding short term mobility solutions. Particularly in the US, mobility policies may have diverse impacts on social classes and increase discrimination. A possible shifting from traffic policies to housing policies may have redistributive consequences and cooperate in equalizing income differences.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
There is plenty of literature on the effects of traffic congestion and pollution on human health. On the contrary, there is still a lot to argue, from an ethical point of view, about the trade-off parameter between mobility and economic development, or about mobility and global responsibility.
- 2.
See Chap. 2, where I argue that in international politics the poor of the world claim the right to pollute.
- 3.
This issue was quite popular among liberal thinkers and politicians during the eighties when some American States (mainly in the so called “Sun Belt”) attracted investments by providing major fiscal incentives. It created the syndrome of the run-away industries and forced many workers to move from the traditional industrial cities.
- 4.
Generally, in environmental policies, it is taken for granted that dispersed settlements produce an overall higher environmental impact compared to densely populated areas. This idea has been challenged by some researchers (Neuman 2005; Holden and Norland 2005; Moos et al. 2006). This ongoing controversy is worth being taken seriously because in the next decades, the use of the Internet will eventually be introduced into the design of new urban settlements. Also, on the same theme, it will be important to consider the walled communities issue as a future form of urban settlement connected to the social, psychological, technical and architectural assimilation of web navigation.
- 5.
We must admit that the idea that European neighborhoods host real communities is today more myth than reality.
- 6.
I thank the Baltimore Urban League for having provided me with this interesting information and Carmen Morosan for having discussed it with me. It is possible to read this report and others on related issues in http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/circulars/ec050.pdf.
References
Clark G (1983) Interregional migration, national policy, and social justice. Rowman & Allanheld, Totowa
Holden E, Norland IT (2005) Three challenges for the compact city as a sustainable urban form: household consumption of energy and transport in eight residential areas in the Greater Oslo Region. Urban Stud 42:2145
Moos M et al (2006) Does design matter? The ecological footprint as a planning tool at the local leve. J Urban Des 11(2):195–224, June
Neuman M (2005) The compact city fallacy. J Plann Educ Res 25:11
Poli C (2009) Città Flessibili. Una rivoluzione per il governo urbano. INSTAR Libri, Torino
Vettorato D, Zambelli P (2010) Sustainable energy at a local scale: a GIS approach based on innovative databases and spatial congruence criteria. In: Porto (Portugal): 45th ISOCARP congress – low carbon cities. Congress proceedings (forthcoming)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Poli, C. (2011). Ethical Aspects in Traffic Planning. In: Mobility and Environment. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1220-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1220-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-1219-5
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-1220-1
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)