Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ReVeAL (Regulating Vehicle Access for improved Livability)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-12-01 al 2022-11-30
The need to reduce climate emissions is an increasing driver to make change that reduces vehicle emissions in cities. Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that more urban space is needed for people. Other reasons to regulate vehicle access include pollution-related deaths, the costs associated with congestion and the possibility to improve quality of life by converting road space into recreation or commercial space. Urban space allocation is also a question of equity; people with low incomes often have no car, which means the vulnerable in society subsidise the road space use of those who drive.
While national policies can improve the general conditions for lower-emitting options, urban vehicle access regulations can help facilitate faster change in urban areas. But despite urgent calls for smarter urban vehicle access regulations in the Urban Mobility Package and other political commitments, few decision makers have been keen on the idea of restricting car access in urban areas. Because “stick” measures such as UVARs are much less popular than “carrot” measures, it’s important for each city to find ways to combine carrots and sticks, as well as an approach and complementary measures that fit its local context.
Well-chosen UVARs can address several challenges, including climate emissions, air and noise pollution, quality of life, safety and/or congestion. ReVeAL systematises the process by classifying, structuring and describing UVAR measures to make them understandable to a wide range of stakeholders and by providing implementation guidance.
Overall objectives:
The goal of the EU Horizon 2020 project ReVeAL has been to support cities by:
1. identifying and analysing good practice UVAR examples to understand what has worked and why,
2. carrying out UVARs and extracting, synthesising and generalising the lessons learned from the process through documentation, monitoring and evaluation,
3. taking into account user needs and public acceptance and ensuring that equity is not compromised with the changes made,
4. structuring the UVAR development process and developing guidance to give other cities the tools they need to develop packages of UVAR measures that are both appropriate to their local context and future ready.
ReVeAL’s overall objective is to add UVARs to the standard range of urban mobility approaches across Europe and beyond.
While national policies can improve the general conditions for lower-emitting options, urban vehicle access regulations can help facilitate faster change in urban areas. But despite urgent calls for smarter urban vehicle access regulations in the Urban Mobility Package and other political commitments, few decision makers have been keen on the idea of restricting car access in urban areas. Because “stick” measures such as UVARs are much less popular than “carrot” measures, it’s important for each city to find ways to combine carrots and sticks, as well as an approach and complementary measures that fit its local context.
Well-chosen UVARs can address several challenges, including climate emissions, air and noise pollution, quality of life, safety and/or congestion. ReVeAL systematises the process by classifying, structuring and describing UVAR measures to make them understandable to a wide range of stakeholders and by providing implementation guidance.
Overall objectives:
The goal of the EU Horizon 2020 project ReVeAL has been to support cities by:
1. identifying and analysing good practice UVAR examples to understand what has worked and why,
2. carrying out UVARs and extracting, synthesising and generalising the lessons learned from the process through documentation, monitoring and evaluation,
3. taking into account user needs and public acceptance and ensuring that equity is not compromised with the changes made,
4. structuring the UVAR development process and developing guidance to give other cities the tools they need to develop packages of UVAR measures that are both appropriate to their local context and future ready.
ReVeAL’s overall objective is to add UVARs to the standard range of urban mobility approaches across Europe and beyond.
• Project level
-Transition Framework describing the urban processes during UVAR implementation
-Support for pilot cities in designing and implementing pilots through scenario building and support of the change management process.
-Communication, dissemination and stakeholder engagement strategy for communication and dissemination activities and support of the local communication processes in pilot cities
-12 detailed case studies on cities that have successfully implemented UVAR measures
-Categorised set of building blocks of UVAR measures in the three ReVeAL measure fields (spatial interventions, regulatory measures and pricing aspects)
-33 fact sheets describing and characterising UVAR building blocks, with a case example
-Detailed guidance for cities on UVAR implementation (including information on UVAR Box and UVAR Exchange projects)
-Input to the Covid-19 SUMP Practitioners’ Briefing, the SUMP Resilience Guide, the annex to the SUMP topic guide on UVAR and the SUMP topic guide on decarbonisation
-Lessons learned from pilot cities and recommendations for cities considering access regulations
-Online UVAR decision support tool to help cities decide on UVAR measures appropriate for them.
• Pilot city level
-Bielefeld: ambitious measures in the old town including reallocating space from parking to other uses, bollards and one-way streets to prevent through traffic and a car-free bicycle street. Extensive public participation, including a dedicated website to allow for input and feedback.
-Padua: superblock in a peripheral neighbourhood with car-free space around school; LTZ/LEZ in the city centre including a new ordinance and entry/exit number plate reading at 32 gates. Both rules and infrastructure are simpler and clearer.
-Helmond: ISA test to assess possible impacts of introducing ISA cars on different types of roads; study of existing digital maps and physical infrastructure (signage) to understand how “ISA ready” the network is; toolkit for new residents and a logistics action plan for a car-free zone
-London: more ambitious and wider zero-emission zone scheme in the context of Covid changes using supporting measures including logistic centres, zero-emission waste collection, EV car sharing for residents/small business, e-cargo bikes and EV charging infrastructure
-Vitoria-Gasteiz: 3 superblocks, including an LEZ in the central superblock and camera pairs to control the through-traffic crossing the central superblock, using time spent in the zone to detect through-traffic
-Jerusalem: close collaboration across organisations and jurisdictions, revision of national legislation to create a framework that allows for LEZ/ZEZ, city-wide LEZ put in place. setting up a system to allow for the regulation of non-road mobile machinery, major polluters in the city.
-Transition Framework describing the urban processes during UVAR implementation
-Support for pilot cities in designing and implementing pilots through scenario building and support of the change management process.
-Communication, dissemination and stakeholder engagement strategy for communication and dissemination activities and support of the local communication processes in pilot cities
-12 detailed case studies on cities that have successfully implemented UVAR measures
-Categorised set of building blocks of UVAR measures in the three ReVeAL measure fields (spatial interventions, regulatory measures and pricing aspects)
-33 fact sheets describing and characterising UVAR building blocks, with a case example
-Detailed guidance for cities on UVAR implementation (including information on UVAR Box and UVAR Exchange projects)
-Input to the Covid-19 SUMP Practitioners’ Briefing, the SUMP Resilience Guide, the annex to the SUMP topic guide on UVAR and the SUMP topic guide on decarbonisation
-Lessons learned from pilot cities and recommendations for cities considering access regulations
-Online UVAR decision support tool to help cities decide on UVAR measures appropriate for them.
• Pilot city level
-Bielefeld: ambitious measures in the old town including reallocating space from parking to other uses, bollards and one-way streets to prevent through traffic and a car-free bicycle street. Extensive public participation, including a dedicated website to allow for input and feedback.
-Padua: superblock in a peripheral neighbourhood with car-free space around school; LTZ/LEZ in the city centre including a new ordinance and entry/exit number plate reading at 32 gates. Both rules and infrastructure are simpler and clearer.
-Helmond: ISA test to assess possible impacts of introducing ISA cars on different types of roads; study of existing digital maps and physical infrastructure (signage) to understand how “ISA ready” the network is; toolkit for new residents and a logistics action plan for a car-free zone
-London: more ambitious and wider zero-emission zone scheme in the context of Covid changes using supporting measures including logistic centres, zero-emission waste collection, EV car sharing for residents/small business, e-cargo bikes and EV charging infrastructure
-Vitoria-Gasteiz: 3 superblocks, including an LEZ in the central superblock and camera pairs to control the through-traffic crossing the central superblock, using time spent in the zone to detect through-traffic
-Jerusalem: close collaboration across organisations and jurisdictions, revision of national legislation to create a framework that allows for LEZ/ZEZ, city-wide LEZ put in place. setting up a system to allow for the regulation of non-road mobile machinery, major polluters in the city.
UVARs (e.g. zero-emission zones, limited traffic zones, pedestrian zones or reallocated road space) can help make cities more liveable, safer and healthier, and support the achievement of transport and climate goals, but they are challenging to implement as they are often perceived as taking something away – particularly from those who drive cars. This means implementation must be well managed, with due consideration for governance; user needs and public acceptance; ensuring compliance; communication and stakeholder engagement; equity and complementary measures to ensure that people and goods maintain access – if perhaps not by their accustomed mode.
ReVeAL established a structure for UVAR measures that allows practitioners and decision makers to understand the individual UVAR building blocks and how they can be combined to develop packages. It also created guidance on the implementation process. ReVeAL’s fact sheets and guidance can help make the implementation of UVAR measures less daunting to cities and more acceptable to citizens. When this practice becomes the norm, cities and citizens will experience the environmental and societal benefits that well-implemented UVARs can bring.
Impacts:
A clear structure that identifies individual UVAR measures and classifies them into three UVAR categories will make it easier to begin (or continue) an UVAR development process by allowing a city to identify measures it has already taken and consider which ones could be added.
ReVeAL addresses the EC’s increased focus on UVARs and provides the support and guidance city authorities need – and have asked for. Information on ReVeAL has been made available to the Mission Cities.
ReVeAL’s guidelines can help cities understand the policy and technology changes that may be required with the introduction of more and different UVAR measures. This can include technology that enables new forms of enforcement or that may require adaptation of UVAR measures (e.g. zero-emission zones will no longer play a congestion-reducing role when all vehicles are electric; a traffic limiting component would need to be added). The knowledge gained in the project is reflected in the ReVeAL building block fact sheets and ReVeAL’s UVAR guidance.
ReVeAL established a structure for UVAR measures that allows practitioners and decision makers to understand the individual UVAR building blocks and how they can be combined to develop packages. It also created guidance on the implementation process. ReVeAL’s fact sheets and guidance can help make the implementation of UVAR measures less daunting to cities and more acceptable to citizens. When this practice becomes the norm, cities and citizens will experience the environmental and societal benefits that well-implemented UVARs can bring.
Impacts:
A clear structure that identifies individual UVAR measures and classifies them into three UVAR categories will make it easier to begin (or continue) an UVAR development process by allowing a city to identify measures it has already taken and consider which ones could be added.
ReVeAL addresses the EC’s increased focus on UVARs and provides the support and guidance city authorities need – and have asked for. Information on ReVeAL has been made available to the Mission Cities.
ReVeAL’s guidelines can help cities understand the policy and technology changes that may be required with the introduction of more and different UVAR measures. This can include technology that enables new forms of enforcement or that may require adaptation of UVAR measures (e.g. zero-emission zones will no longer play a congestion-reducing role when all vehicles are electric; a traffic limiting component would need to be added). The knowledge gained in the project is reflected in the ReVeAL building block fact sheets and ReVeAL’s UVAR guidance.