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.
Artificial Intelligence in Proactive Road Infrastructure Safety Management
Roundtable Report, Policy Insights,
14 December 2021
- Develop a competitive market for the sharing and monetising of traffic and mobility data.
- Do not wait for real-time data before developing risk maps.
- Mandate the sharing of aggregate vehicle data.
- Learn from other fields and best practice for data sharing and privacy protection.
- Support research and innovation towards trusted and explainable AI.
- Align new tools with precise policy objectives.
- Develop new skills and digital infrastructure.
- Clarify regulatory frameworks for data protection and digital security.
- Design user-friendly risk-mapping tools.
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.
Travel Transitions: How Transport Planners and Policy Makers Can Respond to Shifting Mobility Trends
Research Report, Policy Insights,
16 August 2021
- Scan for emerging travel trends using a combination of traditional and new data sources.
- Measure the performance of the transport system with indicators that reflect how mobility contributes to societal objectives.
- Take a proactive approach to anticipating travel transitions by scanning developments inside and outside the transport sector.
- Account for uncertainty when making predictions and be explicit about the different sources of uncertainty .
- Shift from a “predict and provide” approach towards a “decide and provide” approach in the face of deep uncertainty.
- Change the mindset and enhance the skillset of the transport-planning workforce.
- Foster a strengthening of international knowledge sharing and co-operation via a “learning by doing” approach.
- Adapt transport governance to better account for uncertainty in planning.
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.