Summit and Events
Local Governments and Ports
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
23 May 2017
- Develop tailor-made governance arrangements for ports.
- Allow decentralised port governance to create additional benefits for local communities.
- Coordinate public port investment, nationally and where possible at a supra-national level.
- Ensure that ports not only focus on profits, but also take local impacts into account.
Strategies for Mitigating Air Pollution in Mexico City
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
15 May 2017
- Consolidate the use of on-board diagnostic system checks in the mandatory vehicle inspection and maintenance programme.
- Adopt state-of-the-art emissions standards for heavy duty diesel vehicles without delay.
- Verify vehicle emissions in real world driving conditions.
- Continuously update the system of restrictions on vehicle use in the Metropolitan Zone of the Valle de Mexico and improve enforcement.
- Phase in a city-wide low emissions zone and consider road pricing.
- Differentiate the tax on vehicle ownership to provide incentives for cleaner cars.
- Introduce incentives for ultra-low sulphur diesel and gasoline at national level.
- Reduce speeds on motorways and ring roads.
- Manage parking more effectively.
- Improve sustainable transport alternatives to cars and taxis.
- Consolidate initiatives to integrate land-use and transport planning.
- Improve retrofit programmes with inspection, maintenance and quality certification.
- Introduce emissions regulations for off-road vehicles and mobile machinery.
- Invest more in communicating with the public on the development of new anti-pollution measures.
ITF Transport Outlook 2017
Transport Outlook, Policy Insights,
29 January 2017
- The 2016 Paris climate agreement must be translated into concrete actions for the transport sector.
- Policy will need to embrace and respond to disruptive innovation in transport.
- Reducing CO2 from urban mobility needs more than better vehicle and fuel technology.
- Targeted land-use policies can reduce the transport infrastructure needed to provide more equitable access in cities.
- Governments need to develop planning tools to adapt to uncertainties created by changing patterns of consumption, production and distribution.
Cruise Shipping and Urban Development: The Case of Dublin
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
22 January 2017
- Implement the Alexandra Basin Redevelopment Project.
- Develop a joint cruise strategy for the whole city.
- Better exploit Dublin’s asset as potential home port.
- Resolve constraints related to cruise passenger flows.
- Develop a green cruise port policy.
The Impact of Mega-Ships: The Case of Gothenburg
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
11 January 2017
- Develop a focused national ports policy for Sweden.
- Make it easier for the Port of Gothenburg to attract direct calls by container ships.
- Resolve bottlenecks related to mega-ships.
Cruise Shipping and Urban Development: The Case of Venice
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
21 December 2016
- Create certainty about the future of cruise shipping in Venice.
- Develop a tourism strategy for the city including guidance on which tourists to prioritise.
- Develop instruments to contain the number of tourists in the city of Venice.
- Develop an action plan for extracting more value from home port passengers.
- Give a more structural character to environmental policies that have a discontinuous nature.
Adapting Transport to Climate Change and Extreme Weather
Research Report, Policy Insights,
14 December 2016
- Act now to preserve the value of transport infrastructure and maintain network performance.
- Protect transport infrastructure against climate impacts through good maintenance.
- Prepare for more frequent and unexpected failure of transport infrastructure.
- Account for temporary unavailability of transport assets in in service continuity plans.
- Assess vulnerability of transport assets and networks from climate change and extreme weather.
- Focus on transport system resilience, not just on designing robust infrastructure.
- Re-evaluate thinking on redundant transport infrastructure.
- Do not rely solely on cost-benefit analysis for appraising the value of transport infrastructure.
- Develop new decision-support tools that incorporate deep uncertainty into asset appraisal.
Zero Road Deaths and Serious Injuries
Research Report, Policy Insights,
1 October 2016
- Think safe roads, not safer roads.
- Provide strong, sustained leadership for the paradigm shift to a Safe System.
- Foster a sense of urgency to drive change.
- Underpin aspirational goals with concrete operational targets.
- Establish shared responsibility for road safety.
- Apply a results-focussed way of working among road safety stakeholders.
- Leverage all parts of a Safe System for greater overall effect and so that if one part fails the other parts will still prevent serious harm.
- Use a Safe System to make city traffic safe for vulnerable road users.
- Build Safe System capacity in low and middle-income countries to improve road safety in rapidly motorising parts of the world.
- Support data collection, analysis and research on road traffic as a Safe System.
Road Safety Annual Report 2016
IRTAD, Policy Insights,
14 July 2016
- Focus road safety policy on vulnerable road users.
- Enforce drink driving laws, speed limits and the wearing of seat belts and motorcycle helmets.
- Analyse the reasons behind the relatively poor road safety performance in 2015 and adapt policies.
Reducing Sulphur Emissions from Ships: The Impact of International Regulation
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
9 May 2016
- Harmonise requirements on maritime sulphur emissions with regard to compliance options.
- Apply sanctions for non-compliance with sulphur emissions regulations for ships that are sufficiently dissuasive.
- Inverse the burden of proof for compliance by prohibiting ships to carry heavy fuel oil except as cargo.
Capacity to Grow: Transport Infrastructure Needs for Future Trade Growth
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
8 May 2016
- Develop planning tools to adapt to uncertainties: Good port planning means planning for uncertainties.
- Increase port capacity by optimising existing terminals.
- Take a holistic planning approach to improving port capacity needs as part of the entire supply chain.
- Use funding as a balancing tool in port capacity development.
Estableciendo la Agencia Reguladora del Transporte Ferroviario de México
Case-Specific Policy Analysis,
9 March 2016
Establishing Mexico’s Regulatory Agency for Rail Transport
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
29 February 2016
- Any reform of the rail concessioning system must preserve the current high level of performance.
- Accept price discrimination to ensure efficiency, with the regulatory agency to adjudicate what prices are reasonable.
- Focus regulation on cases where effective competition does not already exist.
- Collect adequate financial and operating data on the rail companies as the basis for effective regulatory decisions.
- Consider cutting the cost of regulation by including an arbitration mechanism in any further regulatory reform.
- Consider inter-switching rules in any further regulatory reform.
- Interchange traffic rights should not be expected to be used for shippers to specify routes.
- Resource the new regulator with sufficient expertise to convince the courts that its decisions are sound.
Adapting Transport Policy to Climate Change
Research Report, Policy Insights,
30 November 2015
- Uncertainty is different from risk.
- Climate effects are subject to uncertainty.
- There are techniques to deal with risk.
- There is currently no robust method to treat Knightian uncertainty.
- Risk, uncertainty and discount rate all affect carbon value.
Improving Safety for Motorcycle, Scooter and Moped Riders
Research Report, Policy Insights,
7 October 2015
- The powered two-wheeler population is increasing and plays a significant role in mobility.
- Powered two-wheeler (PTW) riders are at far greater risk than car drivers.
- Poor perception and control are frequent failures that lead to PTW crashes.
- A Safe System approach is required to improve the safety of PTWs.
- The helmet is the most important source of protection against severe injuries and death.
- Advances in car technology can also bring positive safety benefits to PTW users. There are a number of new technologies, such as forward collision warning, blind spot information and vulnerable road user protection systems, which can prevent collisions, including those with PTW riders, pedestrians and cyclists.
Road Infrastructure Safety Management
IRTAD, Policy Insights,
6 October 2015
- Benchmark road infrastructure against good practices in other countries.
- Implement new minimum safety standards for road infrastructure.
- Continue evaluation and research to quantify safety impacts of planning decisions.
- Implement suitable Road Infrastructure Safety Management procedures for each stage of road development including planning design, pre-opening and full operation.
- Make Road Infrastructure Safety Management procedures legally binding.
- Involve both road and health authorities when developing road accident data bases.
- Assure adequate institutional management capacity and investment levels.
- Use existing tools and guidelines; adopt second-best solutions where state-of-the-art solutions are not feasible.
- Identify the Road Safety Infrastructure Management procedures that fit specific needs and understand barriers to implementation.
- Share good practices of Road infrastructure Safety Management procedures and intervention measures.
- Monitor the safety performance of road infrastructure.
- Develop self-explaining roads.
Why Does Road Safety Improve When Economic Times Are Hard?
IRTAD, Policy Insights,
5 October 2015
- There is clear evidence that when economic growth declines, and particularly when unemployment increases, road safety improves.
- The financial and economic crises which started in 2007 were accompanied by marked falls in annual numbers of road deaths in most OECD countries.
- It is important to understand how much of the accelerated reduction in numbers of deaths during the downturn that began in 2008 was attributable to the changed economic conditions.
- The economic downturn in 2009-10 may well have contributed to about two-thirds of the decrease in fatalities from 2008.
- The recent downturn has had repercussions on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and unemployment rate and has influenced the number of road deaths through a reduction in vehicle kilometres driven, especially by young men and by heavy goods vehicles, a reduction in speeding and in drink-driving, and a reduction in learning to drive by young men.
- Policy makers need to take careful account of these results when setting road safety targets and when designing road safety strategies for the future.
Logistics Strategy and Performance Measurement: Mexico’s National Observatory for Transport and Logistics
Case-Specific Policy Analysis,
30 April 2015
The Impact of Mega-Ships
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
30 April 2015
- Cost savings from bigger container ships are decreasing.
- The transport costs due to larger ships could be substantial.
- Supply chain risks related to mega-container ships are rising.
- Public policies need to better take account of this and act accordingly.
- Further increase of maximum container ship size would raise ransport costs.
Drivers of Logistics Performance: A Case Study of Turkey
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
30 April 2015
- Policy actions creating the highest improvement in the logistics performance vary for different income levels.
- Reducing the variability of customs clearance time is an important element for improving the efficiency of border crossing procedures.
- Capacity management plays a vital role in infrastructure efficiency.
- Intermodal transport systems, including good access to roads, terminals and seaport channels, are fundamental for a high-quality transport infrastructure.
- A successful logistics industry is essential in providing high quality logistics services.
- Resilience-improving policies and investments are necessary.
The Competitiveness of Ports in Emerging Markets: The Case of Durban, South Africa
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
1 November 2014
- Create an inter-departmental freight unit within the city of Durban that can bundle expertise and act as a one-stop shop for freight-related issues in the city. This unit could act as a vehicle to improve coordination on freight transport and engage in joint planning, aligning various actors including Transnet, SANRAL, the national and provincial departments of Transportation and the various departments within the city of Durban.
- Increase the autonomy of TNPA and streamline decision-making procedures within Transnet. This includes more financial autonomy, e.g. by creating a separate fund at the disposal for TNPA for port infrastructure and maintenance.
- Focus performance indicators on the performance of the whole supply chain. Currently much focus seems to be on part of the picture (e.g. crane productivity) without much consideration for (and sometimes even at the detriment of) other indicators.
- Undertake a comprehensive environmental port impact study and implement green-port mitigation policies if necessary