Transition to Sustainable Mobility
Transumo is a national Dutch research program that aims to initiate and support a transition to a sustainable mobility system that supports an international competitive position of the Dutch economy (‘profit’), that respects the environment (‘planet’), and that offers high quality accessibility and mobility for people and the goods they need (‘people’). As a so called BSIK-program, Transumo is funded for 50 percent by the Dutch government and for 50 percent by the private sector and by knowledge institutions.
Transumo is at the same time:

• a subsidised research program that researches various components of a future sustainable mobility system and the necessary steps and actions that can initiate the desired transition to such a system;
• a consortium of public parties, private parties and knowledge institutes that join forces to find solutions for the sustainable mobility challenges of the program,
and
• an expertise network that is able to respond swiftly and appropriately to challenging questions in the international field of mobility, transport, logistics and traffic.

Transitions are necessary
The existing mobility and transport system is not sustainable in terms of ‘people’, ‘planet’ and ‘profit’ and will not automatically change in the required direction at the pace deemed necessary. There is a need for an improvement in the quality of accessibility, the strain on the living environment is too great, as is the dependency on non-renewable energy sources. In the worst case scenario, without significant interventions this can lead to a backlash or system breakdown (see also the figure), which will ultimately cause a change of course but only at enormous social cost. (Source: J. Rotmans, October 2006)

Although actors and stakeholders of the mobility and transport system are usually aware of these challenges, individually they are restrained to take actions by institutions, legislation, available technologies and relationships within the civil society from pursuing a structurally different course (‘lock-in’ situation). Further, consciously or unconsciously, these so-called regime players tend to maintain the existing system. To make a gradual transition to a sustainable mobility system (and achieve a ‘soft landing’) it is important to guide the transition. A gradual transition of this nature calls for fundamental changes that are built on small, successful approaches that are initiated by niche players who are connected with the regimes or can at least exert influence on them. Transumo aims to supply knowledge that is necessary to achieve a transition to sustainable mobility: by developing new technologies and concepts, and by simultaneously researching implementation and transition issues.

Given the aims, characteristics, and conditions of the BSIK program, Transumo has initially evolved from a ‘bottom up’ process in which private parties, public parties and knowledge institutes jointly defined, initiated and supported research issues. This implies that the Transumo research program can not claim to be all-inclusive with respect to the theme ‘sustainable mobility’: Transumo only takes up those challenges that are supported in the tri-partite setting of the program. This setting also implies that, already from the start of the program, Transumo merges fundamental research and its applications in combined projects - this contrary to earlier national initiatives and some other BSIK funded programs.

The research within the Transumo program aims to acquire knowledge on setting the right incentives and creating the appropriate conditions for developing and implementing integrated solutions in the domains of ´mobility of persons´, ´freight transport & logistics´, ´traffic management´ and ´infrastructure development and management´. Since the beginning of 2007, there have been two equal, complementary and mutually reinforcing building blocks to the program: themes and processes.