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.
New but Used: The Electric Vehicle Transition and the Global Second-hand Car Trade
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
4 December 2023
- Improve the traceability of internationally traded used cars.
- Avoid hampering exports of used electric vehicles to emerging economies.
- Ensure used cars for export meet clear roadworthiness criteria, including their emissions performance.
- Develop sustainable transport strategies in emerging economies to avoid their over-dependence on cars.
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
Regulating App-based Mobility Services in ASEAN
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
23 April 2023
- Welcome app-based mobility but adjust regulation as necessary.
- Treat incumbents and entrants equally.
- Revise outdated and fragmented regulatory frameworks.
- Focus regulation on addressing clearly-identified market failures.
- Take the broader urban policy environment into account when designing regulations.
- Improve public authority digital skills and access to data.
- Streamline the regulatory framework for app-based mobility services.
- Monitor and enforce regulations.
- Build regulatory capacity within ASEAN member states.
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.
Micromobility, Equity and Sustainability
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
5 September 2021
- Base regulation on sustainable urban mobility policy objectives.
- Consult micromobility companies on public policy issues early and often to avoid distorting regulations.
- Apply outcome-based regulations linked to specific performance criteria.
- Ensure limits on market access allow competition; avoid static caps on shared micromobility vehicle fleets.
- Limit data-reporting requirements to information used for mobility planning.
- Set regulatory fees in light of the potential value of micromobility for sustainable mobility and the uncertain viability of business models.
- Support equitable and affordable micromobility services.
- Follow the principle of mode-neutrality when developping an urban transport system.
- Reallocate road and parking space to micromobility users, cyclists and pedestrians.
- Address motor vehicle speeds when regulating micromobility speed.
- Apply coherent regulation that treats micromobility operators equally.
- Adopt a permissive and adaptive regulatory approach to micromobility.
Travel Transitions: How Transport Planners and Policy Makers Can Respond to Shifting Mobility Trends
Research Report, Policy Insights,
16 August 2021
- Scan for emerging travel trends using a combination of traditional and new data sources.
- Measure the performance of the transport system with indicators that reflect how mobility contributes to societal objectives.
- Take a proactive approach to anticipating travel transitions by scanning developments inside and outside the transport sector.
- Account for uncertainty when making predictions and be explicit about the different sources of uncertainty .
- Shift from a “predict and provide” approach towards a “decide and provide” approach in the face of deep uncertainty.
- Change the mindset and enhance the skillset of the transport-planning workforce.
- Foster a strengthening of international knowledge sharing and co-operation via a “learning by doing” approach.
- Adapt transport governance to better account for uncertainty in planning.
Big Data for Travel Demand Modelling
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
11 August 2021
- Collect data only for defined purposes and only the minimum required.
- Develop guidelines for the use of big data in transport models.
- Enable the collection of location data through smartphone apps.
- Protect privacy through multiple solutions.
- Define a roadmap for household travel surveys.
- Design and test smartphone-assisted household travel surveys.
- Leverage artificial intelligence for data mining.
- Create and promote a recognised data steward function in the public and private sectors.
- Invest in the data-related training of the public-sector workforce.
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.
Zero Carbon Supply Chains
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
27 June 2021
- A more proactive strategy from the port authority.
- Stronger involvement of the city administration in zero carbon freight.
- Facilitation of zero carbon freight transport by the federal government.
Decongesting our Cities
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
10 May 2021
- Present congestion charging in a positive light, as value pricing or decongestion charging, rather than as an additional tax.
- Consider congestion charging as part of sustainable urban mobility plans.
- Make more use of HOT lanes and peak pricing on tolled expressways.
- Ensure adequate user choice to accommodate responses to congestion charging.
- Ensure that congestion charging revenues are used effectively and in ways that have public support.
- Hypothecate revenues from congestion charges flexibly.
- Use differentiated congestion charges to maximise the benefits and minimise the costs.
Reversing Car Dependency
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
24 February 2021
- Review the street space and urban land share allocated to cars.
- Use road space allocation to proactively manage traffic.
- Abolish minimum parking space requirements for new developments.
- Consider road pricing to drive more efficient use of scarce road space and urban land.
- Use parking rates to discourage excessive driving.
- End employer-paid parking subsidies.
- Ensure that quality alternatives to private cars are convenient and efficient.
- Work towards integrated planning of transport and land-use.
- Review land-use regulations that hinder compact development patterns.
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.
The Impact of HOV and HOT Lanes on Congestion in the United States
Discussion Paper,
20 September 2020
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.