Overview
The main objective of the ASSIST proposal is to provide the EU with sound policy advice on the possible social and economic impacts of future sustainable transport policies that would bear the potential to contribute to the strategic objectives of the EU given by the Lisbon Strategy, the Sustainable Development Strategy and the upcoming EU-2020 strategy.
The ASSIST proposal follows a broad definition of the meaning of Transport Policy including traditional transport policies (e.g. pricing, fuel taxation, regulation/liberalisation of transport markets), infrastructure implementation and transport technology related measures (e.g. technological/efficiency standards, R&D support, market introduction support). We would summarize such a broad understanding of policies as Transport Policy Measures (TPM), which then have a broader meaning then just transport policy.
The proposal consists of two main lines of work (1) the line of desk research on studies and empirical results of TPM, which will produce the Handbook on Social and Economic Impacts of Sustainable Transport Policy, and (2) the line of model preparation of the ASTRA-EC model, which will be given to the European Commission and will be derived from the ASTRA model (Assessment of Transport Strategies) that has been developed and successfully applied for policy analysis since the 4th FP.