Troublesome leisure travel: Counterproductive sustainable transport policies

Abstract

In this chapter, we present three well-established sustainable transport policies – developing more compact cities, building pro-environment awareness and attitudes, and promoting growth of information and communication technologies – designed to reduce emissions from everyday travel and show that these policies may also be associated with increased emissions from leisure travel. Moreover we suggest mechanisms to explain why a given policy may produce these contradictory effects. Finally, we examine the policy implications of the results and discuss further research.