Road
How Governments Can Bring Low-Emission Trucks to Our Roads – and Fast
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
13 December 2023
- Now or never. Given the urgency of the climate crisis, governments cannot let technological uncertainty be a barrier to action.
- Assess the likelihood. Governments need to carefully assess the likelihoods with which different technologies will deliver effective climate action. They must promote the most likely technologies, even with uncertainty.
- Bet on batteries. Battery-electric vehicles currently have the highest likelihood of successfully decarbonising road transport.
Transit-Oriented Development and Accessibility: Case studies from Southeast Asian cities
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
8 October 2023
- Ensure sufficient availability of public transport and infrastructure for active modes.
- Integrate transport planning with land use planning for co-ordinated implementation of measures.
- Embrace disruptive mobility trends in ways that ensure improved accessibility.
- Collect more and better-quality data on urban mobility to underpin transit-oriented development.
- Learn from international experiences with transit-oriented development and apply them locally.
Shifting the Focus: Smaller Electric Vehicles for Sustainable Cities
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
26 September 2023
- Shift the focus of policies that promote electric vehicles to end the dependency on large, under-used vehicles.
- Help make smaller electric vehicles an attractive choice for citizens.
- Ensure the transition to smaller electric vehicles goes in hand with adequate safety provisions.
- Fast-track the electrification of shared mobility services in complement with public transport.
- Ensure the availability of enough charging points to make electric mobility attractive.
Decarbonisation and the Pricing of Road Transport
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
20 June 2023
- Reform fuel taxes
- Supplement fuel taxes with distance-based charges
- Consider opt-in arrangements for the introduction of new distance-based charges
- Introduce congestion charges where required
- Consider earmarking congestion charging revenues for improving public transport and active mobility
- Set the level of road-user charges to meet sustainable transport objectives
- Make introducing differentiated distance-based charges a policy priority
- Reform incentives for the uptake of electric vehicles to better align with policy goals
Preparing Infrastructure for Automated Vehicles
Research Report, Policy Insights,
3 May 2023
- Policy makers need new skills and partners to optimise the function and benefits of automated vehicles on their roads
- Automated vehicles will use existing roads in the near term, and are supported by good maintenance to a defined standard
- Developing “invisible infrastructures” offers greater opportunities for near-term benefits than upgrades to physical infrastructure
- A blueprint for co-operation can help traffic managers maximise the benefit of introducing automated vehicles as part of a wider transport network
- Standardised testing procedures across jurisdictions can accelerate the spread of automated vehicles
- Traffic laws and behavioural norms must be ready for automated vehicles
- There needs to be clear and coherent responsibility for ensuring automated vehicles work within a Safe System
- Developers and policy makers should co-operate on a research programme focused on key issues related to automated vehicles
The Freight Space Race: Curbing the Impact of Freight Deliveries in Cities
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
5 December 2022
- Manage curb space with a focus on the needs of both passengers and goods transport.
- Apply access restrictions for delivery vehicles in urban areas while considering business practices.
- Use more logistics data to better monitor and manage freight flows.
Decarbonising Europe’s Trucks: How to Minimise Cost Uncertainty
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
4 September 2022
- Ensure that policies to promote direct electrification of trucks remain technology-neutral.
- Launch targeted studies and pilot projects to assess the merits of electric road systems for road freight decarbonisation.
- Further investigate decarbonisation technologies for particularly challenging road freight applications.
- Introduce policies that help zero-emission vehicles become cost-competitive sooner.
- Accelerate the deployment of zero-emission vehicle infrastructure.
- Strengthen regulations that make trucks more energy-efficient.
Mode Choice in Freight Transport
Research Report, Policy Insights,
27 February 2022
- Apply integrated policy approaches to create coherent interventions across freight-transport modes.
- Focus on mitigating external costs associated with each freight mode, rather than on modal shift as such.
- Improve the evaluation of policy interventions’ effectiveness to better inform measures that influence the choice of freight transport modes.
- Create fair competition between freight transport modes.
Streets That Fit: Re-allocating Space for Better Cities
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
16 February 2022
- Adopt meaningful indicators for how urban street space is used.
- Re-allocate street space to account for diverse uses and users.
- Prioritise people over vehicles when allocating street space.
- Explore the benefits of dynamically re-allocating certain street spaces.
- Adopt Safe System principles to guide the re-allocation of street space.
Cleaner Vehicles: Achieving a Resilient Technology Transition
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
20 July 2021
- Support the adoption of clean vehicles with targeted policy action and by increasing transparency of their carbon footprint.
- Prioritise a transition to direct electrification of vehicles and renewable energy.
- Address challenges in resource efficiency and sustainable supply chains.
- Prepare for a transition from fuel duties by seizing opportunities arising from increased connectivity and accelerating enabling regulatory actions.
- Include infrastructure for easy access to clean energy and digital connectivity of road transport in Covid‑19 recovery packages.
- Prepare for the impact of the sustainable mobility transition on jobs, required skill sets and social equity.
- Accelerate the development of other low-carbon technologies.
How Urban Delivery Vehicles can Boost Electric Mobility
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
9 December 2020
- Prioritise electrification of vehicles with high mileage and regular daily activity, including LCVs in last-mile delivery.
- Promote electric light commercial vehicles in cities and tightly regulate combustion-engine vehicles.
- Strengthen fuel economy standards, zero-emission mandates and economic incentives for light commercial vehicles.
- Define regulatory requirements and clarify costs for upgrades to the electricity grid needed for electric vehicles.
- Use vehicle design and components of electric passenger cars to unlock price reductions of electric light commercial vehicles.
- Strengthen co-operation among stakeholders to reduce investments risks for the manufacturing of electric light commercial vehicles.
Regulations and Standards for Clean Trucks and Buses
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
14 September 2020
- Ensure that vehicle safety regulations and standards for electric and hydrogen cover all classes of road vehicles and better differentiate between light and heavy vehicles.
- Leverage the experience of international regulatory fora to extend the coverage of safety-related requirements to heavy electric vehicles.
- Ensure that the scope of regulations on the safety of hydrogen-powered heavy vehicles addresses aspects that are currently not adequately considered.
- Involve diverse transport and energy stakeholders in the development of charging standards for electric heavy vehicles.
- Address missing elements in regulations and standards related to electric road systems.
- Develop hydrogen refuelling protocols for heavy vehicles using gaseous storage at 70 MPa, new nozzles and instruments guaranteeing compliance with stringent fuel quality requirements.
- Increase the focus of pre-normative research on the safe use of low- and zero emission vehicles with existing vehicle infrastructure, especially for hydrogen-powered options.
- Harmonise regulations on tailpipe GHG emissions and energy consumption of heavy vehicles, also integrating instruments evaluating energy use for low- and zero-emission vehicles.
- Fully integrate electricity and hydrogen into regulatory policies on low-carbon fuels.
- Address non-regulated pollutants and integrate hydrogen-powered vehicles using internal combustion engines in regulations on tailpipe pollutant emissions.
- Address the environmental performance of vehicle batteries with regulatory innovation targeting their durability, carbon footprint and the sustainability of associated supply chains.
- Develop an internationally harmonised regulatory framework for the application of differentiated road charges and access restrictions based on environmental performances of vehicles.
Reforming Public Transport Planning and Delivery
Research Report, Policy Insights,
24 February 2020
- Let government plan transport services, but at a decentralised level.
- Consider corporatising publicly operated transport services.
- Pay close attention to system design where competition in public transport provision is introduced.
- Pay attention to service quality as well as costs to achieve a sustainable public transport system.
- Take the broader urban context into account in designing and adopting public transport reforms.
Car and Space Consumption: Rethinking the Regulation of Urban Mobility
Presentation, slides, speech,
16 December 2019
Main Trends in Car Use, Travel Demand and Policy Thinking on how to deal with Uncertainties
Presentation, slides, speech,
16 December 2019
Повышение торгово-транспортной связности и развитие грузоперевозок в Центральной Азии
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
13 May 2019
- Улучшение транспортного сообщения на местном уровне наряду с развитием международных коридоров.
- Установление цен на транзитные перевозки, покрывающих все связанные с ними расходы.
- Реформирование системы финансирования дорожно-ремонтных работ и инвестиций в дорожные сети.
- Привлечение частных инвестиций исходя из соображений экономической эффективности.
- Содействие в формировании современной логистической отрасли.
- Внедрение передового опыта в сфере транспортного планирования.
- Установление стандартов деятельности для таможенных органов.
- Упорядочение регионального и международного сотрудничества.
Enhancing Connectivity and Freight in Central Asia
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
13 May 2019
- Enhance local connectivity along with improvement of international corridors.
- Price transit traffic to cover its full costs.
- Reform road investment and maintenance funding.
- Pursue private investments for cost efficiency.
- Support the creation of a modern logistics sector.
- Institutionalise best practices in transport planning.
- Set performance standards for customs.
- Straighten regional and international cooperation.
High Capacity Transport
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
1 May 2019
- Use the potential of High Capacity Vehicles to increase transport efficiency, reduce traffic volumes, lower emissions and achieve better safety outcomes.
- Use well-monitored trials to introduce High Capacity Vehicles on a road network.
- Configure High Capacity Vehicles for the specific area in which they will operate.
Smart Use of Roads
Research Report, Policy Insights,
19 March 2019
- Make use of smart technologies part of the response to congestion.
- Invest in improving junctions where these create bottlenecks.
- Use hard-shoulder running and ramp metering to get the most out of trunk road capacity.
- Use congestion pricing for active traffic management as part of integrated urban policies.
- Adopt barrier-free electronic tolling to remove bottlenecks.
Policies to Extend the Life of Road Assets
Research Report, Policy Insights,
20 December 2018
- Introduce a proactive approach for the maintenance of road assets.
- Build a proactive, data-driven approach to the maintenance of road assets.
- Strive for continuous professionalisation in road asset management.
- Move from managing the assets to cross-asset management.
- Adopt regulatory frameworks that treat the use of road assets as an economic input.
- Implement infrastructure pricing for trucks to improve cost recovery.
- Better understand the reasons for non-compliance with truck weight limits.
- Focus on positive incentives for efficiency in regulatory and compliance frameworks.
- Develop use cases and business models for the digital infrastructure of truck traffic management.
- Create incentives for the logistics sector to implement truck traffic management.
- Improve awareness of the mutual impact that policies have on the environmental performance of road freight transport and extending the lifespan of road assets.
- Focus on creating a comprehensive regulatory environment rather than on individual measures.
The Social Impacts of Road Pricing
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
10 October 2018
- Make demand management and congestion reduction the primary objective of road pricing.
- Differentiate road pricing by location and time.
- Combine road pricing and public transport planning to improve efficiency.
- Examine the combined effects of scheme design and mitigation to understand distributional impacts.
- Consider the use of discounts and exemptions carefully.
- Develop road pricing as part of an intervention package to achieve better utilisation of urban space.
- Reconcile economic, practical and political aspects in the design of road pricing schemes.
- Differentiate charges and consider adopting a rules-based pricing approach.
Korea’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Mitigation Policies in Logistics
Presentation, slides, speech,
28 June 2018
UN Vehicle Regulations Agreements Activities Related to Heavy Duty Vehicles Fuel Economy
Presentation, slides, speech,
28 June 2018
Emerging Trends on Demand and Mode Choice - Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA)
Presentation, slides, speech,
28 June 2018