Socio-environmental performance of transportation systems

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify and categorize the social and environmental impacts of transportation systems, and address the appropriate solutions to mitigate and manage these impacts in order to achieve sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – This research performs a comprehensive literature review to suggest a framework on socio-environmental impacts of transportation and related solutions. The proposed framework is analyzed through quantitative methods and a survey study in freight transport. Findings – Findings support the direct relation of potential solutions and socio-environmental impacts of transportation. All four categories of solutions (technological, socio-economic and political, cultural and behavioral, and infrastructure related) reveal direct impact on reduction of environmental impacts. However only technological solutions were found to be influential on social impacts of the transportation. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge there has not been any comprehensive framework covering social and environmental impacts of transportation in the literature. In addition, this paper categorizes potential solutions to enhance socio-environmental performance of the transportation and investigates their effectiveness.