FORWARD : Freight Options for Road, Water, And Rail for the Dutch : final report

FORWARD examines possible ways to mitigate the negative impacts of the projected increase in freight transportation on the highways in the Netherlands, while attempting to retain the economic benefits from the efficient and reliable transport of goods. On an aggregate level, the study gives insight into the impacts of a large number of (combinations of) tactics, which are single actions taken to affect the freight transportation system. The various tactics fall into three main categories: direct mitigation of negative effects, more efficient freight movement by road, and inducing a modal shift to alternative modes, such as railways and inland waterways. To assess the impacts of the possible changes in the transportation system, a microcomputer-based policy analysis model called Policy Analytic Computational Environmental for FORWARD (PACE-FORWARD) was developed. It is found that efficiency tactics were the most promising, that selected direct mitigation measures could be used to "fill in" for gaps in goal achievement, and that mode shift tactics were generally not cost-effective and were relatively ineffective at changing impacts.