Walking and Cycling
Carbon Pricing in Shipping
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
14 December 2022
- Introduce carbon pricing in shipping as part of a broader set of decarbonisation measures.
- Consider designing a carbon pricing mechanism for maritime shipping as a "feebate" system.
- Complement carbon pricing with a technical design requirement and a low-emission fuel standard.
- Use carbon pricing revenues from maritime shipping to facilitate an equitable transition to zero emissions.
- Make sure that these pricing schemes and standards cover well-to-wake emissions.
Broadening Transport Appraisal
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
31 August 2022
Develop long-term strategic infrastructure plans that explicitly identify transport policy objectives.
Broaden project appraisal to ensure its processes and practices take account of all transport policy objectives, as embedded in strategic infrastructure plans.
Incorporate accessibility indicators, or other relevant tools, to assess equity impacts in transport project appraisals.
Provide detailed guidance on accounting for climate change impacts in transport project appraisals, incorporating clear linkages between shadow carbon prices and emissions reductions commitments.
Present the results of transport project appraisals in a transparent and concise format that highlights needs-case assessments.
Ensure decision-making processes for large investments in transport systems account for uncertainties and the need for broad stakeholder support.
Integrate technical assessment, process management and public engagement into decision processes for major transport infrastructure investments.
Undertake systematic ex-post evaluation for all transport infrastructure projects entailing expenditure above an identified level.
Consider the merits of the permanent observatory model as a means of maximising the quality of evaluations.
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.
Maritime Subsidies: Do They Provide Value for Money?
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
16 September 2019
- Re-orient and harmonise maritime subsidy policies.
- Clarify objectives of maritime subsidies.
- Make maritime subsidies more conditional on positive impacts.
- Design maritime subsidies in ways that avoid market distortions.
- Improve transparency around maritime subsidies.
Quantifying Private and Foreign Investment in Transport Infrastructure
Discussion Paper, Policy Insights,
15 March 2019
- Improve the collection and dissemination of disaggregated data on the level and characteristics of private investments in transport infrastructure.
What is Private Investment in Transport Infrastructure and Why is it Difficult?
Discussion Paper, Policy Insights,
28 January 2019
- Distinguish between infrastructure and the operations that take place on it.
- To pursue private investment in infrastructure, choose between competition for the contract or the regulated model.
- Differentiate between attracting private investors in existing assets (privatisation) and in new infrastructure PPPs.
Regulatory Capacity Building
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
8 November 2018
- Favour the use of confidential contracts.
- Consider the use of arbitration.
- Reinforce legal capacity.
- Develop financial accounting and reporting requirements.
- Consider adapting the standard North American financial reporting form for Mexico.
- Develop a standard waybill.
- Develop a waybill sample data collection and analysis system.
- Determine the structure of the waybill sample.
- Choose a contractor to process waybills.
- Establish a network modelling process to generate traffic flow analyses.
The Impact of Alliances in Container Shipping
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
2 November 2018
- Adopt a presumption toward repeal of shipping-specific block exemptions from competition law.
- Improve project appraisal for port and hinterland infrastructure and adopt common principles for port pricing.
- Establish more coherent ports policies to clarify roles and reduce risk of creating over-capacity.
Connectivity and City Clusters
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
29 October 2018
- Invest in ways that support polycentric urban development where natural regional markets exist.
- Locate strategic functions of the city cluster in areas most accessible by all citizens.
- Adapt governance structures to clustered urban development.
- Address structural issues that lead to unnecessary urban spread.
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.
Private Investment in Transport Infrastructure: Dealing with Uncertainty in Contracts
Research Report, Policy Insights,
21 June 2018
- Pursue private investment in infrastructure on the merits of improved efficiency.
- Invest more into upfront preparation of projects to reduce inefficient risk pricing by suppliers.
- Undertake a comprehensive analysis of how to assist suppliers.
- The pursuit of certainty in delivery should be balanced against cost.
- Stimulate innovation through early contractor involvement or alliancing, not public-private partnerships.
- Avoid transferring demand risk to public-private partnerships if service levels do not strongly impact demand.
- Bundle and cross-fund public-private partnerships to reduce demand risk.
- Adopt the regulatory asset base model where competition is absent or demand not strongly endogenous.
- Introduce a transparent public accounting standard to maximise the value for money of private investment.
- Foster competitive markets to achieve cost-effective infrastructure.
- Pursue data collection on how contract design affects project outcomes.
- Support the development of an evidence-supported procurement tool.
Understanding Urban Travel Behaviour by Gender for Efficient and Equitable Transport Policies
Discussion Paper, Policy Insights,
1 February 2018
- Public transport scheduling needs to consider a wider range of needs and preferences.
- Taxi and informal transit services require safer regulations and technologies.
- Gender analysis leads to effective and efficient transport demand management.
- Safety improvements are key to ensure optimal public transport use.
Partenariats public-privé pour les infrastructures de transport
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
29 January 2018
- Ne renégocier les PPP que dans des cas exceptionnels.
- Faire appel à un arbitre indépendant pour établir si le résultat d’un PPP cadre avec ce que les parties auraient négocié si elles avaient prévu le changement intervenu.
- Envisager de charger une instance indépendante de statuer sur le bien-fondé de la renégociation d’un PPP.
- Inclure la réputation et la compétence avérée parmi les critères d’attribution des contrats de PPP.
- Comparer les avantages et inconvénients des PPP avec ceux des autres formes de participation des capitaux privés.
The Impact of Mega-Ships: The Case of Jakarta
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
8 December 2017
- Resolve bottlenecks elsewhere in the supply chain to increase efficiency.
- Open up domestic coastal freight transport to international shipping lines.
- Smart phasing in of next phases of the New Priok port project.
- Stimulate port investment in other parts of Indonesia.
L'évaluation ex-post des investissements et interventions publiques dans les transports
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
27 November 2017
- Planifier d’emblée la collecte des données nécessaires à l’évaluation.
- Procéder à un exercice de vérification en cours d’exécution.
- Confier l’exercice de vérification à des entités indépendantes.
- Reconnaître la diversité des objectifs économiques des investissements dans les transports.
- Associer les partenaires locaux en démontrant l’efficacité du projet.
Capacity Building through Efficient Use of Existing Airport Infrastructure
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
30 October 2017
- Whilst governments should act cautiously and avoid intervention unless there are strong reasons for it, airports, airlines, air navigation service providers, and regulators need to pursue all possible technical innovations to improve the utilisation of airport capacity. Collaborative decision-making is critical to achieving optimal outcomes.
- Governments should consider policies improving air connectivity alongside all impacts of air transport, in particular in terms of noise and air pollution impacts on local communities.
- Governments should constantly re-evaluate caps on aircraft movements that are designed to contain noise impacts, as technological improvements make it possible to reduce noise nuisance while allowing for more aircraft operations.
- IATA WSG should continue to evolve to facilitate more efficient use of scarce airport capacity, ultimately benefitting passengers and other users of aviation. Authorities should ensure that the rules are applied in practice as intended.
- Any system of slot allocation at congested airports needs to take account of the potential benefits of competition. When slots are allocated to new entrants they should be in sufficient quantity to support viable business models.
- The potential to use primary slot auctioning to improve welfare outcomes at congested airports should not be ruled out. To make decisions on primary slot auctioning, the transfer of rents needs to be considered explicitly, and steps taken to avoid excessive disruption to incumbent airlines.
- Secondary slot trading should be allowed and facilitated for more efficient utilisation of capacity.
- Congested airports should eliminate price discrimination against large aircraft wherever such discrimination is present.
Mesurer les avantages socio-économiques des transports
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
1 October 2017
- Les directives relatives à l’ACA peuvent être élargies pour prendre en compte la fiabilité et certains effets plus larges.
- Des travaux de recherche supplémentaires sont nécessaires sur les avantages en matière de fiabilité afin d’améliorer la confiance dans les résultats.
- Les effets économiques plus larges devraient être étudiés dans les cas où l’on s’attend à ce qu’ils soient importants.
- Des travaux de recherche supplémentaires sont nécessaires sur les effets plus larges à saisir et les outils permettant de le faire.
- L’ACA peut jouer un rôle important dans la prise de décision, mais ne doit pas occuper une place prépondérante.
Airport Site Selection
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
30 May 2017
- The process should start with an assessment of need for new infrastructure.
- Comparable assessments should be undertaken for a range of feasible options.
- Selection criteria need to examine all positive and negative impacts of airport capacity expansion.
- Assessments need to incorporate considerations of risk and uncertainty.
- The process needs to be clear, transparent, collaborative, and trade-offs need to be explicitly considered.
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.
Strategic Infrastructure Planning: International Best Practice
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
23 March 2017
- Systemic risks can be reduced where projects form part of a broad and long-term strategic plan.
- Strategic infrastructure planning carries its own risks, including technology's influence on demand- and supply-side considerations.
- When it works well, strategic planning can set out a stable set of priorities for future investment with durable cross-party support.
- A successful infrastructure planning process balances a stable framework with maintaining flexibility.
- The planning process requires clear objectives, a degree of independence and an open, collaborative approach.
- The planning methodology needs to address risks and uncertainties, take into account binding policy constraints and include considerations of pricing the use of infrastructure.
- A top-down approach to infrastructure planning to complement traditional project by project assessment is essential to a strategic assessment of long-term economic infrastructure needs across sectors.
- Infrastructure planning across sectors can help identify the most important systemic risks early.
- Using analytical methods such as a scenario-based approach to analysis can be helpful in future-proofing infrastructure plans.
- It is important to consider how demand for scarce infrastructure can be managed. Debt management need to be part of any strategic investment plan.
- A top-down approach could foster the development of an analytical framework for investment decisions reflecting both demand and supply side considerations.
Ex-Post Assessment of Transport Investments and Policy Interventions
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
27 February 2017
- Data collection for evaluation needs to be planned for from the outset.
- Audit transport projects throughout the project stages
- Use independent organisations to carry out audits of transport projects.
- Recognise the variety of economic goals targeted by transport investments.
- Involve local partners in providing evidence on performance.
Public Private Partnerships for Transport Infrastructure: Renegotiation and Economic Outcomes
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
23 February 2017
- Use renegotiation of PPPs only in exceptional cases.
- Use an independent jury to assess whether the outcome of a PPP is what parties might have been expected to negotiate had they foreseen a change that has occurred.
- Consider to task an independent body with determining when renegotiation of a PPP is legitimate.
- Include reputation and demonstrated competence in selection criteria for a PPP.
- Compare advantages and weaknesses of PPPs versus other forms of private capital.
Quantifying the Socio-economic Benefits of Transport
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
20 January 2017
- Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) guidelines can be expanded to include reliability and some wider impacts.
- Further research into reliability benefits is needed to improve confidence in results.
- Wider economic impacts should be examined in cases where they are expected to be significant.
- Further research into the impacts and tools for capturing wider impacts is needed.
- Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) can play an important role in decision making, but need not dominate.
Airport Demand Forecasting for Long-Term Planning
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
6 July 2016
- Use quantitative methods to analyse the key drivers of airport demand.
- Use expert guidance to help interpret the quantitative results.
- Quality-assure the analysis and counter the risks of optimism bias.
- Reflect the risks and uncertainties that arise in even the best forecasts.
- Make better use of demand forecasts in airport infrastructure planning.
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.
Better Regulation of Public-Private Partnerships for Transport Infrastructure
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
24 September 2013
- A mix of financing models spreads risks.
- A dedicated budget for PPPs, set in relation to the rate at which future liabilities will be accumulated, can provide such a limit.
- Explicit consideration of alternative financing arrangements should be employed in determining whether to proceed with PPP projects.
- It is recommended that governments require PPP projects to pass tests of affordability and to clear the hurdle rates of return generally applied to publicly financed transport projects.
- The expected cost of PPP projects should take account of cost inflation resulting from the propensity for projects to be renegotiated.
- At the individual project level, risks should be assigned to the party best able to manage them, along with rights to make related decisions.
- Assigning demand risk is not straightforward and risk sharing arrangements are therefore common.
- Continuity of resources and expertise is essential for addressing strategic behaviour and optimism bias more generally.
- Regulatory agencies are well placed to ensure transparency and accountability by publishing reports on the criteria employed to make decisions and publishing contracts.