Road
How the war in Ukraine impacts aviation – and what to do about it
22 December 2022
- Investment and market reforms fueled Ukraine's aviation sector before the war.
- The war has shut down civil aviation in Ukraine and destroyed its airports.
- War-related airspace closures force international flights onto longer routes, resulting in longer travel times, higher fuel costs and added carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
- The energy crisis unleashed by the war drives up ticket prices, potentially reducing demand and threatening aviation's recovery from the pandemic.
- The war's short-term impacts on air travel could trigger long-lasting changes in international aviation.
- Restoring Ukraine's air connectivity after the war hinges on rebuilding destroyed aviation infrastructure.
- Ending aviation's dependency on fossil fuels can make the sector more resilient to future crises.
Carbon Pricing in Shipping
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.
The Freight Space Race: Curbing the Impact of Freight Deliveries in Cities
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.
Broadening Transport Appraisal
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.
Dealing with the War’s Impacts on Ukraine’s Ports: How to Get More Grain to the World
10 July 2022
- Ukraine is the world’s third-largest grain exporter but the war has rendered most Ukrainian ports unusable. Grain exports have plummeted.
- Many countries in Africa and Asia depend on Ukrainian grain. The drop in exports has driven up food prices and raised fears of shortages and hunger.
- Ukraine can shift some grain exports to European ports with spare capacity. However, rail transport is complicated because of different rail gauges.
- Exporting Ukrainian grain via foreign ports adds transport costs of USD 150 or more per tonne. This is triple the average intercontinental shipping cost.
- An international agreement creating safe maritime corridors in the Black Sea would best safeguard grain exports from Ukraine.
Streets That Fit: Re-allocating Space for Better Cities
16 February 2022
- Adopt meaningful indicators for how urban street space is used.
- Re-allocate street space to account for diverse uses and users.
- Prioritise people over vehicles when allocating street space.
- Explore the benefits of dynamically re-allocating certain street spaces.
- Adopt Safe System principles to guide the re-allocation of street space.
Innovations for Better Rural Mobility
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).
Data-driven Transport Infrastructure Maintenance
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.
Cleaner Vehicles: Achieving a Resilient Technology Transition
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.
Developing Strategic Approaches to Infrastructure Planning
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.
Cycling, Health and Safety
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.
Better Regulation of Public-Private Partnerships for Transport Infrastructure
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.