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Investments in urban transport should deliver the maximum economic, social and environmental benefits; in times of constrained budgets, projects' economic viability is often the deciding factor. This paper discusses the current practices and challenges facing cities in assessing urban transport interventions. On this basis, it develops options for decision-makers to appraise small-scale, sustainable urban transport policy measures.
The analysis of current appraisal practice shows that data requirements and complexity are cities’ main obstacles appraising projects and comparing potential alternatives. Additionally, there is often a risk that project appraisal enters the planning process too late to play any meaningful role. Conducting a Cost-benefit
analysis (CBA) ex-ante is often only approved if the implementation of the measure in question is already likely. Often, a CBA is a means to access funds rather than a basis for decision-making. Project appraisal of small-scale and non-infrastructure-based measures is often simply too expensive.
On the basis of these findings, the paper discusses the following alternatives to comprehensive CBAs: 1) learn from others, 2) use a simplified assessment method, 3) rely on norms and values. All of these options aim to cope with the trade-off between effort and certitude. In practice, some policy-makers may already apply one or more of these options, but this has not been documented in a systematic manner. A systematic documentation of such practices could be a major step forward for implementation of sustainable and integrated urban transport projects, as it would shed some light on the reasoning behind decisions, from which conclusions could be drawn on the likely follow-on effects thereof and also possible improvements to the process.
In 2008, transport accounted for 27% of the world’s total final energy consumption. Currently, we are facing a rapidly expanding transport sector with continually increasing energy consumption. In the future, emerging and developing countries especially will experience an accelerated growth in transport energy demand due to rapid population growth, urbanisation and rising per capita income. The transport sector’s inefficiency and its dependency on oil will become an economic burden for these countries. They will have to face increasing crude oil prices and uncertainties regarding energy security.
Thus, there is a need for an efficient transport system and particularly for decision makers in developing and emerging countries to have access to planning advice in order to identify suitable and effective measures for low-energy urban transport. To meet this demand, existing knowledge and measures about energy efficiency in urban passenger transport was compiled and a structured introduction to energy efficiency in transport is provided.
The main determinates of an energy-efficient transport system are explained and strategic approaches to increase energy efficiency are outlined. Success factors and barriers for energy efficiency policies are described. The main element of the paper is an overview of different energy efficiency policies and measures for the key actors in energy-efficient transport on local and national levels. A set of measures is assigned to each actor identified. The compilation was adapted to the circumstances in developing and emerging countries and includes examples for successful implementation of several measures. Thus, the document satisfies the need for a comprehensive introduction to energy efficiency in urban transport in developing and emerging countries.