Walking and Cycling
Greener Micromobility
Corporate Partnership Board Report, Policy Insights,
18 June 2024
- Micromobility is becoming greener. Aside from walking, cycling remains the most environmentally friendly way of moving around cities. Electrification has further expanded the distances cyclists can travel. Shared micromobility has made significant progress in terms of sustainability as operators have addressed the impacts of their fleets and operations on the environment. Leasing models are particularly attractive from a lifecycle environmental impact perspective.
- Shared fleet vehicle design has reduced lifecycle impacts. The rapid uptake of improved vehicle designs in shared fleets has steeply reduced per-rider-kilometre greenhouse gas emissions. Longer vehicle lifetimes, enabled by more robust design, greater modularity and ease of repair, have driven reductions in impact across the lifecycle.
- Fleet servicing operations have significantly improved. Swappable, higher-capacity batteries have reduced the impact of fleet recharging, enabled the use of less impactful cargo bikes and fostered more efficient fleet servicing models. Improved fleet logistics, including maintenance, repair and re-positioning have contributed to greener operations. Electrification of fleet servicing vans also matters, but to a lesser extent.
Improving the Quality of Walking and Cycling in Cities
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
14 February 2024
- Overcome car-centric thinking. Decades of car-centric development have made its assumptions the unquestioned norm. As a result of this “moto-normativity”, risks and harms from motor vehicles may be accepted when they are unacceptable in other contexts. Many cities have begun to question this approach.
- Think beyond infrastructure. Focusing on infrastructure is not enough to ensure pedestrians and cyclists will feel safe and secure and enjoy walking and cycling. Policies must also target street violence, social disadvantage and other factors.
- Redesign planning processes. Processes for transport investments have traditionally prioritised car-centric options. A vision-led approach can provide the basis for redesigning these processes, and help ensure active travel contributes to more inclusive, sustainable cities. Work in progress across a number of cities worldwide suggests such a shift is possible.
Regulating App-Based Mobility Services
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
26 August 2019
- Maintain a permissive regulatory environment for new app-based mobility services.
- Treat incumbent mobility providers and new market entrants equally.
- Revise outdated and fragmented regulatory frameworks for mobility services.
- Focus regulation on addressing clearly-identified market failures.
- Take the broader urban policy environment into account when designing regulations.
- Consider subsidies for app-based mobility services where appropriate and invest in supporting infrastructure.
Benchmarking Accessibility in Cities
Case-Specific Policy Analysis, Policy Insights,
19 May 2019
- Use the new urban accessibility framework to compare and benchmark cities.
- Improve accessibility by reducing trip lengths and enhancing transport performance.
- Learn from similar cities with higher accessibility scores.
- Collect more and better urban mobility data, notably on walking and cycling.