Political economy issues of environmentally friendly transport policies

This paper discusses problems of the political and social feasibility of environmentally friendly transport policies. It presents a politico–economic model for this purpose. Special attention is given to the role of voters in the feedback from society to the government. A multidimensional spatial model of voters' preferences is discussed, combined with theories about the way voters' preferences are formed. Empirical illustrations are given for various aspects of voters' attitudes vis a vis transport policies in The Netherlands: (i) the existing inequalities among households in terms of transport–related expenditures and government subsidies; (ii) attitudes of voters on a number of transport policy instruments.