Sustainability, Environment
Transport System Resilience
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
10 April 2024
- Transport networks are vulnerable. Transport systems face multiple disruptions, from geopolitical tensions and climate change impacts to pandemics. Understanding these disruptions is crucial for strengthening their resilience.
- Disruptions have spillover effects. Transport networks are interconnected, and transport disruptions in one part of the world can easily spread to other regions. Managing such spillover effects requires inter-regional co-operation.
- Be systematic about resilience. The concept of transport resilience must be built into national-level policies, long-term plans, appraisal procedures, competition policies and transport indicators.
Perspectivas del Transporte del ITF 2023
Transport Outlook, Policy Insights,
10 December 2023
- Desarrollar estrategias globales para la movilidad y las infraestructuras futuras.
- Acelerar la transición a flotas de vehículos limpios.
- Aplicar políticas de cambio de modo de transporte y gestión de la demanda allí donde sean
más eficaces. - Considerar los beneficios adicionales para las zonas urbanas al evaluar las políticas.
- Reformar la fiscalidad de los vehículos para reflejar los costes externos de los nuevos parques
automovilísticos.
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.
ITF Transport Outlook 2023
Transport Outlook, Policy Insights,
23 May 2023
- Develop comprehensive strategies for future mobility and infrastructure
- Accelerate the transition to clean vehicle fleets
- Implement mode shift and demand-management policies where they are most effective
- Consider the additional benefits for urban areas when evaluating policies
- Reform vehicle taxation to capture external costs of new vehicle fleets
Carbon Pricing in Shipping
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
13 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.
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.
Navigating Towards Cleaner Maritime Shipping
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
15 November 2020
- Increase the energy efficiency of new and existing ships.
- Leverage public sector procurement to stimulate the electrification of short-distance shipping.
- Introduce regulations on lifecycle emissions of maritime fuels.
- Put in place carbon pricing for shipping and policies that can reduce the carbon content of shipping fuels.
- Advance the discussion on market-based mechanisms at the International Maritime Organization.
- Launch pilot projects to gain experience with new fuels and accelerate the adoption of safety guidelines.
Assessing the Impacts of Vehicle Emissions and Safety Regulations
Discussion Paper,
12 November 2019
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.
Integrating Urban Public Transport Systems and Cycling
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
25 April 2018
- Design interchange stations to provide secure, uncongested conditions for transfer by the shortest routes possible.
- Provide adequate bike parking areas at stations and stops.
- Integrate ticketing and information systems as well as the physical transport infrastructure.
- Establish integrated urban transport plans in consultation with stakeholders and the public.
Cruise Shipping and Urban Development: The Case of Piraeus
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
28 June 2017
- Develop a strategy to attract tourists to the city of Piraeus.
- Facilitate stakeholder co-operation to boost competitiveness of Piraeus as a cruise destination.
- Work to reduce the environmental impacts of cruise shipping on Piraeus.
Managing the Transition to Driverless Road Freight Transport
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
30 May 2017
- Continue driverless truck pilot projects to test vehicles, network technology and communications protocols.
- Set international standards, road rules and vehicle regulations for self-driving trucks.
- Establish a temporary transition advisory board for the trucking industry.
- Consider a temporary permit system to manage the speed of adoption and to support a just transition for displaced drivers, while ensuring fair access to markets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cycling, Health and Safety
Research Report, Policy Insights,
19 December 2013
- Insufficient evidence supports causality for the “safety in numbers” phenomenon – policies increasing the number of cyclists should be accompanied by risk-reduction actions.
- Efforts must be made to harmonise definitions of bicycle accident terminology so as to be able to make reliable international comparisons on cyclist safety.
- National authorities should set standards for, collect or otherwise facilitate the collection of data on non-fatal cycling crashes based on police reports and, in either a systematic or periodic way, on hospital records.
- Authorities seeking to improve cyclists’ safety should adopt the Safe System approach - policy should focus on improving the inherent safety of the traffic system, not simply on securing marginal improvements for cyclists in an inherently unsafe system.
- Authorities should establish top-level plans for cycling and cycling safety and should ensure high-level coordination among relevant government agencies to ensure that cycling grows without aggravating safety performance.
- Speed management acts as “hidden infrastructure” protecting cyclists and should be included as an integral part of cycle safety strategies.
- Cyclists should not be the only target of cycling safety policies – motorists are at least as important to target.
- Where appropriate, traffic speeds should be limited to less than 30km/hr where bicycles and motorised traffic mix but care should be taken so that speed control devices do not create hazards for cyclists.
What Does Improved Fuel Economy Cost Consumers and What Does it Cost Taxpayers?
Discussion Paper,
30 April 2011
Full Account of the Costs and Benefits of Reducing CO2 Emissions in Transport
Discussion Paper,
1 January 2008
Long Run Trends in Transport Demand, Fuel Price Elasticities and Implications of the Oil Outlook for Transport Policy
Discussion Paper,
1 December 2007