Assessing the transport development of the European Union countries

In their previous publication, the authors proposed to assess the transport development of any territory (but mainly the territories
of the world’s countries) according to the following three components: transportization level of a territory, transport internationalization
level of a territory and quality of transport in a territory. The authors assessed three components of the transport development of a territory
each separately, including them in further empirical analysis. In the course of the authors’ empirical research, it became necessary to
improve the methodology for assessing the transport development of a territory. The purpose of this study is to develop a single tool for
measuring the transport development of a territory – an index – and to test it on the example of the European Union countries. Methods
used in the study: monographic method, logical analysis and synthesis of the conceptual essence of the phenomenon ‘transport
development of a territory’, index method – a quantitative technique for assessing the transport development of a territory based on the
minimum and maximum values. The information base of the study is the data of the Global Competitiveness Report, as well as data from
GlobalEconomy.com and the World Factbook for the EU countries. As a result of the study, the authors developed a new Territory
Transport Development Index (TTDI), which includes not three, but four components: transportization level of a territory, transport
internationalization level of a territory, quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory, efficiency of the transport services in a territory.
These four components of the Index developed by the authors differ from the previously proposed components of the transport
development of a territory. This difference is determined by the results of study carried out by researchers of the Riga Technical University
(RTU), which confirm the importance of transport infrastructure in the use of a territory’s resources, as well as the results of other
comparative studies on the transport infrastructure of the EU countries. Thus, the third component (quality of transport in a territory) was
divided into two separate components: quality of the transport infrastructure in a territory and efficiency of the transport services in a
territory, including additional indicators in the first of them. The authors tested the new Index by assessing the European Union countries
and comparing them both in general transport development and separately in its different aspects