The fundamental transport problem*

Transport allows us to act across different locations. People and firms respond to infrastructure investment and improved transport services by relocating activities and transactions. In essence, transformative transport decisions redraw the maps of our cities and regions. Yet predicting how transport policies reshape urban form and economic activity, and the associated costs and benefits, remains a significant challenge. We are at the forefront of linking transport and urban models in a cutting-edge quantitative environment.

Public transport has become a contentious, nearly ideological topic in recent years. Bus and train services benefit from scale economies, making them cheaper and cleaner to operate on avage, compared to private cars. Many policies assume that affordable, high-quality public transport can shift drivers away from cars and help address the climate crisis. However, funding these systems has become increasingly challenging, especially post-Covid, and even in high-spending economies, private car use persists. This raises a fundamental question: what is the social optimum of public transport provision?

We live in an age where transport users and are tracked in unprecedented detail. Today's researchers can measure far more than in the analogue era, but more data also means more noise, making it harder to identify causality and useful information. Data analysis now requires new skills. Our projects in statistics and data science aim to (1) uncover cause-effect relationships, (2) integrate new data into theory-based models, (3) predict the impacts of future policies, and (4) support policy optimisation with quantitative insights.

What is transport science? The transport sector is one of the largest employers and a major recipient of public funding in developed economies. Yet, it is not always clear what transport researchers do or how they contribute to improving the effectiveness of our transport systems. In this non-technical introduction, we offer a fresh classification of the subfields within transport research and explain their relevance.

Transport economics is an applied field that uses microeconomic theory to analyse and improve transport systems. It focuses on how individuals and firms make travel-related decisions. Welfare economics plays a key role by assessing how policies can maximise overall societal wellbeing. Transport economists develop models that interpret behaviour, value preferences, recommend optimal policies, and validate findings with data. 

Central and Eastern Europe is full of contrasts. It has been one of the fastest growing regions of Europe in the past three decades, and its historic Cold War legacy is gradually fading, especially in large cities. Public transport is dense, cheap, but not particularly fast and reliable, while owning an expensive car is the primary symbol of person wealth. Meanwhile, CEE still has a lot to do to catch up in the quality of transport research. Explore more insights here!