COM/ENV/EPOC/IEA/SLT(2020)4/REV2
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2020[57]). Any shift away from private, car-based mobility systems could contribute to making this improvement permanent, rather than having air quality deteriorate rapidly towards pre-confinement levels, as is already the case in many places (Vincendon, 2020[55]) (EEB, 2020[59]). Although not all local air pollutant emissions are attributable to transport, conservative WHO estimates are that 3 million yearly deaths can be attributed to ambient air pollution in cities and towns worldwide) (Wiedinmyer, 2016[60])16. The crisis has also seen a reduction in the number of people killed through crashes on the roads as a result of the large falls in traffic (ITF, 2020[61]). However, the reduction in deaths has been less than proportionate to the reduction in traffic volume. In part this is accounted for by speeds that increased in decongested streets, underlining the importance of measures to manage speeds and enforce speed limits. Thus additional actions, including incorporating safe design standards when reconfiguring streets (see further discussion below), are needed.
Mapping of selected recovery measures in surface transport To analyse transport recovery measures within the three stylised recovery pathways, this section employs the Avoid-Shift-Improve framework for mitigation actions in the transport sector, which is widely used (Bongardt Daniel and Swart Anthea, 2019[62]). Using these categories for each pathway, Figure 6 maps a selected number of recovery measures into Rebound, Decoupling and Wider well-being. The arrows in Figure 6 identify broad actions that can impact climate mitigation negatively or neutrally (dark/light orange) or positively (light/ dark green). The first arrow includes actions that are related to the “improve” objective, i.e. that have an effect on vehicle technologies (in the case of Rebound, measures would rather reinforce current technologies and hamper the shift to cleaner vehicle technologies - reflected by the dark orange in the arrow). The second to fourth arrows are related to “avoid” and “shift” effects, i.e. the shift from lowoccupancy private car to active modes, shared and high-occupancy trips and the avoidance of unnecessary trips and long distances. In the case of Rebound, measures would increase or reinforce barriers to modal shift and travel reduction, again reflected by the dark orange in the arrows). The measures mapped here were selected after analysing measures announced by different countries (and cities). In some cases, additional ideas on how some of the measures could be implemented for Wider well-being are provided. For example, measures supporting the automotive sector with conditionality for improving vehicle technologies, but also adding requirements or incentives to increase shared, rather than private, mobility.17 In the same logic, support for charging infrastructure to foster the uptake of electrification as part of recovery measures would, if in line with a well-being approach, need to enable and be in line with the shift towards an increased role of active and shared (including public transport) mobility and the shift away from car dependency. Indeed, personal vehicle use reduction could require significantly less (Hsu, Slowik and Lutsey, 2020[63])and different (Goetz, 2017[64]); (Transport & Environment, 2020[65]) charging infrastructure than a future where private vehicle use remains along current trends; and so adapting investment accordingly will be important. Investing in a combination of slow and fast charging stations in optimal locations for sustaining shared fleets would be consistent with Wider well-being, although private home and work based charging points will still be necessary. (Transport & Environment, 2020[65]) A charging masterplan to 2030 for Europe developed by Transport and Environment, uses this balanced approach. It sets as main priorities for charging plans to achieve full coverage of road networks, improve simplicity and transparency for consumers, implement smart charging to align charging with the
16
Accounting only for PM2.5 and PM10 and not for Nitrous Oxides (NOx) or Ozone (O3).
17
Sperling, Pike and Chase (2018[214]) establish that regulations and incentives to improve vehicle technologies (e.g. fuel efficiency standards) can be effectively linked to objectives for increasing shared and high-occupancy mobility. In the case of fuel efficiency standards, by awarding extra credit for the sale of vehicles used for passenger shared mobility services. The same logic could therefore be applied to measures envisaged for the recovery.
Unclassified
