2 Transport’s environmental impacts

Transport can produce both direct and indirect environmental impacts:

• Direct impacts: the results of transport operation, such as pollutants emitted by vehicles, noise intrusion, traffic accident casualties, and the land take of roads, railways and airports (i.e. the amount of land they use).
• Indirect impacts: how changes in travel behaviour lead to urban sprawl, changes in activity patterns and unhealthy lifestyles resulting from a lack of physical exercise.

This course focuses on energy issues, and for transport these tend to be the direct impacts concerning the source and amount of energy used in vehicles. However, the energy used in the manufacture and disposal of the vehicles and such items as batteries is a significant factor. This is likely to be entered into national statistics under the category of ‘industry’.