The future of road transport in Europe. Environmental implications of automated, connected and low-carbon mobility

The increasing efficiency of the transport system during the last 100 years has fuelled and sustained the unprecedented economic growth of our society. It has shaped our livestyles and influenced the development of our cities and town. At the same time it has posed several challenges to our world as the provision of transport opportunities has heavily contribuitred to the depletion of natural resources, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, etc. Road transport in particular has had a major role into this. Several policies have been introduced during the last 50 years in the attempt to limit the impact of the transport system, but they have been effective only to a certain extent. During the last years, however, new technologies and social trends are promising to disrupt the transport system and make it substantially more efficient and more sustanable. The present paper discusses the possibile environmental impacts of some of the new technologies applied to transport, in particular highlighting how its complexity may jeopardize the possible improvements that the new technologies promise without properly governing their use.