In this study we calculate the private costs, marginal external costs, and degree of internalization for all modes in Flanders for the period 2000-2014, with an outlook towards 2016. The private costs are the costs for the user. For road transport these include the vehicle purchase costs, insurances, maintenance, fuel costs, etc. For transport services (bus, train, plane) this is the ticket price. Marginal external costs are the costs the user does not take into account when deciding to make a trip. They are called marginal as we focus on the additional effect of that one trip. We considered congestion, environment (air pollution and greenhouse gasses), noise, safety, infrastructure wear & tear and health. The internalization of external costs determines the extent to which the user does take into account part of these external costs via taxes and levies. In the case of full internalization, the user pays for all the costs he causes via taxes and levies. Today, in most cases, the user does not pay the full costs he causes. Based on our calculations we assessed the evolution of the degree of internalization over time. Is Flanders heading towards the "polluter pays principle"? Which steps are needed to evolve to a better pricing? We found that over the years the level of internalisation is mainly driven by changes in external costs rather than by a targeted adjustment of taxes. Recent changes in taxation such as the changes in the car registration tax, the yearly road tax and the km charge for trucks did lead to an increase in internalisation, but we are still far from full internalisation. Moreover, it would be better to differentiate taxes not only on environmental performance but also on time and place. The levels of internalisation are also very different-not only between modes but also within the road mode.

In this paper the strategic transport policy assessment instrument HIGH-TOOL is presented. The model has been developed for the European Commission, allowing policy-makers to identify the most advantageous transport policies and to strategically evaluate the impacts of transport policies on transport, environment and economy. The main innovation of this policy assessment tool lies in the integration of originally independently functioning modelsi.e. passenger and freight demand, demography, and vehicle stock models, as well as economic, environmental and safety assessment models. With its traffic zones at the regional level of NUTS-2 and its aggregated view on the transport system, the instrument has a relatively lean structure avoiding runtime problems, without losing the spatial dimension. What distinguishes HIGH-TOOL from all other European transport policy assessment instruments: the model is an open source tool, it is freely available and does not require any commercial software to be run. In combination with its modular structure the HIGH-TOOL model can relatively easily be adjusted to other modelling methodologies or data. It can also comparatively easily be made responsive to "new" policies which are not in the scope of the current model version. Thus the HIGH-TOOL model lays the foundation for further innovations in the assessment of transport policies and mobility concepts.

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