Project research plays a key role in gaining scientific knowledge. The Department aims at a wide array of research projects, incorporating longer term fundamental research projects, as well as contracts with diverse promotors and limited assignments intended for immediate application. Business knowledge also involves to a large extent policy advice, consulting and individual research of the Department members. This way, in the past years, a lot of research was performed for companies, and high-standing research was done into the evaluation of transport investments, mobility policy, tourism, the maritime and port sector, and spatial aspects and city policy.

The lines of research pursued by the Department of Transport and Regional Economics are located on the interface of general and business economics. The rich set of tools that the fields of transport and spatial economics offer are apparent in the broad range of research procedures applied. These include strategic analyses, methods of economic research and assessment, information gathering and analysis, operational research, model-based analysis, forecasting and simulations.

The research activities unfold within the framework of programmes instigated by the university and the authorities (regional, federal and European) as well as specific assignments from the public and private sectors. The topics covered relate to:
 
Freight transport:

• mode choice
• the organization, choice and planning of commodity flows
• land transport: intermodal operations, rail, road haulage, inland navigation and pipelines
• air transport and airports
• transport and logistics

• competition and cooperation in the maritime and port sector
• ports as nodes in the logistics chain
• productivity of terminals
• maritime transport costs
• port policy
• strategic planning in seaports
• traffic forecasting

• the development and improvement of project assessment tools (e.g. cost-benefit analysis, economic effectsanalysis, multicriteria analysis)
• applications to road construction projects, port investments, etc.

• analysis of the competitive strength of (sub)sectors
• development of action plans and formulation of concrete policy recommendations
• development of market studies relating to competition issues
• regulation and deregulation issues  

The interaction between transport and the regional dimension:

• Location analysis for traffic nodes and distribution centres
• Spatial (mobility) plans at local, regional and super-regional level

Urban economics

• Regional planning and policy
• Real estate

The interaction between mobility and the economy:

• The relation between economic growth and demand for transportation
• Demand models and elasticity calculations
• Research into the effectiveness of measures in the frame of a durable mobility policy (company mobility plans, congestion charging,...) 

Please click left for an overview of the Department's research promotors, its current and past research projects, its working papers, its book publications and how to order them, and the academic bibliography of its members.

(Click here to read this research outline in Dutch)