The fundamental transport problem*
The fundamental transport problem*
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Mobility is an enabler of economic activity and a burden on the environment and on public finances at the same time, while it is also perceived as a necessity for almost everyone in modern societies. These opposing forces raise fundamental questions: How should we travel? How much should we travel? And how much should we invest in others’ travel? In transport research, we combine data with economic theory to understand how people, firms and governments think about transport, and develop recommendations for well-informed policy-making.
*The Transport Problem is the title of a 1963 book by Christopher Foster, one of the founding fathers of British transport economics, and also the main title of a 2024 research article by Roger Vickerman. While the definition above is my own interpretation of the fundamental transport problem, my views are heavily influenced by the transport economics literature in general, and by these authors in particular.
This is the extended research website of Daniel Hörcher, a transport researcher in Budapest. Read in more detail about my core research themes:
Are you new to transport research, or interested in what transport science and transport economics are? Would you like to learn more about transport research and policy in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)? I launched this website to have more space to explain our research field and tell more about the CEE context in mobility.
Researchers typically communicate with the world through peer-reviewed articles, social media, and a brief personal website displaying their CV and publication list. Over the past decade, I have written many academic papers, but most of these texts are too long and technical to be accessible to a broader audience. From time to time, I am also active on social media, writing short posts that are never long or technical. However, that medium is not ideal for conveying deeper messages — not to mention that after a few days, posts usually disappear practically forever.
At the same time, I often find myself frustrated by the difficulty of expressing, in a brief elevator pitch, what I work on as a researcher, and why it might help solve some of the most pressing urban policy challenges of our time. I am a transport economist, and I realise that arguments based on economic theory are often counter-intuitive at first sight, requiring a deeper elaboration that we cannot afford in a quick personal or online exchange.
Therefore, I decided to create an old-fashioned website. The idea is simple: whenever I meet someone but do not have enough time to explain what I am working on, I can simply refer them to TransportResearch.hu.
My Research Themes
My Research Themes
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.
Introduction to Transport Research
Introduction to Transport Research
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!
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