Technology, Innovation
Innovations for Better Rural Mobility
Research Report, Policy Insights,
16 December 2021
- Formulate a countrywide accessibility policy and implement Sustainable Regional Mobility Plans (SRMP).
- Adopt a whole-of-government approach for rural public services and the local economy.
- Make regulations more flexible to allow for the development of innovative, cost-effective mobility solutions.
- Combine public mobility budgets to achieve cost savings.
- Fund pilot schemes to test innovative mobility concepts.
- Prioritise financial support for innovative services according to higher impact levels rather than use of high tech.
- Use innovative financing approaches to increase funding pools and viability of individual transport services.
- Increase central government funding for shared and active travel in rural areas.
- Provide technical assistance for rural mobility at the national or regional level.
- Promote mobility hubs to connect local services to the core network.
- Support the development of national or regional Mobility as a Service (MaaS).
Developing Innovative Mobility Solutions in the Brussels-Capital Region
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
12 December 2021
- Regulate mobility operators and MaaS providers separately.
- Adopt an explicitly pro-competitive approach to MaaS in policy and legislation.
- Clearly establish the status of MaaS providers via a licensing scheme.
- Review conditions for mobility operator licences to ensure they do not include barriers to developing MaaS.
- Add mandatory minimum data-sharing requirements relating to informational and operational data to licences for mobility operators.
- Build mandatory consumer data portability, subject to user consent, into the conditions of all mobility operator and MaaS provider licences.
- Adopt competition safeguards as part of the MaaS provider licensing framework.
- Ensure public transport operators have the freedom to negotiate the terms of public transport ticket resale with MaaS providers who, in turn, should be free to determine the pricing of services to consumers.
- Apply OECD and EU best practice principles on regulatory policy and governance to inform approaches to regulating MaaS.
- Make data reporting requirements to public authorities specific and directly related to regulatory tasks.
- The Good Move policy package should remain the key vehicle for implementing sustainable urban mobility policies.
Data-driven Transport Infrastructure Maintenance
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
12 September 2021
- Scale up and speed up the deployment of data-driven approaches to transport infrastructure maintenance.
- Update regulation and guidelines for transport infrastructure maintenance to facilitate the introduction of more data-driven approaches.
- Ensure data-driven infrastructure maintenance approaches follow good practices in data governance.
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.
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.
Ready for Take-off? Integrating Drones into the Transport System
Research Report, Policy Insights,
23 February 2021
- Establish clear objectives and priorities for the introduction of drone transport by identifying the best first use cases.
- Design a communication strategy that directly addresses public concerns.
- Clarify and develop drones’ status within the broader framework of aerospace regulation.
- Co‑ordinate with the drone industry to inform investment, development, and equitable policy making.
- Foster the emergence of civil aviation authorities with interdisciplinary competencies and capabilities in order to integrate drones into the transport system.
- Support the design and implementation of a robust Unmanned Air Traffic Management system.
- Develop methods for assessing the impact of drones’ full life cycle on the environment.
- Incorporate drone operations into long-term urban planning strategy using data and predictive models.
Developing Strategic Approaches to Infrastructure Planning
Research Report, Policy Insights,
22 February 2021
- Governments should adopt a strategic approach to infrastructure planning. This should be communicated clearly via an explicit, detailed and periodically updated strategic infrastructure plan.
- Strategic infrastructure plans should be linked to explicit infrastructure funding envelopes, with project pipelines identified, at least in broad terms.
- Governments should consider the merits of establishing independent infrastructure advisory bodies to provide transparent, expert advice on long-term, cross-sectoral infrastructure strategy, planning and policy development, as well as priorities for medium-to-longer-term infrastructure investment.
- Arrangements for the establishment of independent bodies should address key governance principles, such as those identified in the OECD’s Principles for the Governance of Regulators.
- Infrastructure project appraisal should, as far as possible, be based on a consistent and transparent methodology.
- The OECD/ITF should publish a review of government and private sector infrastructure-related responses to the Covid‑19 pandemic.
- A formal policy framework should guide decisions on the stewardship of major infrastructure assets.
- Governments should review their infrastructure regulatory frameworks.
- Ex post performance assessment should be undertaken for all major projects.
- National infrastructure institutions and statistical agencies should co‑ordinate internationally to develop consistent infrastructure performance measures.
- Where cross-border infrastructure projects are adopted, they should be managed by a specific-purpose body with all parties represented. Policy objectives and performance standards should be clearly specified and governance, funding and accountability mechanisms established.
Defining, Measuring and Improving Air Connectivity
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
16 May 2018
- Adapt the use of connectivity metrics to specific policy challenges.
- Use a combination of approaches to assess potential knock-on effects that policy or strategy changes may have on air connectivity.
- Involve all aviation stakeholders in the policy process of developing air connectivity metrics.
- Make systematic use of air connectivity metrics to evaluate the performance of the national aviation sector and improve decision-making.
Blockchain and Beyond: Encoding 21st Century Transport
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
16 May 2018
- Public authorities must prepare for a much more networked and meshed world.
- Take into account changes in data science and technology when developing Mobility as a Service.
- Look beyond initial cryptocurrency applications of distributed ledger technologies.
- Governments should help deploy the building blocks that enable wider uptake of distributed ledgers.
- Apply blockchain technology now for slow and (relatively) small transport use cases; anticipate next generation distributed ledger technologies for “big and fast” applications to be deployed later.
- Governments should develop algorithmic code-based regulation to accompany the uptake of distributed ledger technologies.
Cooperative Mobility Systems and Automated Driving
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
2 May 2018
- Shared mobility is still a relatively new field but is progressing rapidly. With business models and preferred technologies still in flux, policy makers need to prepare considered responses to these developments without delay.
- Service concepts and technology currently and on the brink of being explored need to consider a range of design domain restrictions, dependencies on infrastructure, operating principles and user interfaces.
- Specific service concepts should be matched to specific operational environments, on a detailed local level as well as across continents and cultures.
- Government action will affect how automated vehicles will impact society. Existing approaches will not be appropriate for long. Their understanding and input will help to balance the debate on whether AVs can indeed alleviate a series of stubborn problems.
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.
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.
Shaping the Relationship Between Public Transport and Innovative Mobility
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
30 May 2017
- Focus on improving overall mobility outcomes, not just on lowering public transport costs.
- Set a vision for urban transport that includes full integration of innovative mobility options.
- Ensure partnerships between public transport and innovative mobility operators to improve mobility for all people, including those with disabilities.
- Target low-performing or costly routes, and leverage government assets to guide convergence.
- Split regulatory oversight from operation of urban transport and adapt procurement practices.
- Mitigate innovation risk for new services through pilots and portfolio management.
- Incentivise age- and disability-friendly interactions in partnerships between public transport and ride-service operators.
Transition to Shared Mobility
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
30 May 2017
- Start to integrate shared mobility solutions into existing urban transport plans.
- Leverage shared mobility to increase use of existing high-capacity public transport.
- Deploy shared mobility services in a phased way that maximises public acceptance.
- Optimise overall efficiency while assuring a healthy level of competition in the market.
- Limit exclusive occupancy of shared vehicles to avoid the erosion of traffic reduction and CO2 emissions.
- Leverage the significant potential of improved territorial accessibility created by shared mobility.
- Make shared mobility services fully accessible to citizens with reduced mobility benefits.