Sustainable and energy efficient transport of passengers and goods has become a major concern of policymakers worldwide. A new paper by researchers from the University of Maribor and the Institute for Transport and Logistics ITL in Bologna examines the current policies and measures for sustainable urban freight transport in 129 European cities.
The methodology for mapping and benchmarking of strategic policy documents and measures has been developed and applied to a panel of 129 European cities. The analysis shows an extremely heterogeneous situation of logistics and mobility planning policies and planning documents adopted in Europe.
Cities are mainly opting for soft measures with a high impact on savings. They are trying to achieve efficiency with an adequate regulatory system and measures supporting the introduction of new services.
Only a few cities measures directly promoting energy savings were identified while on the other hand, various measures with an indirect impact on energy consumption were recognized.
The case studies of different European cities in this paper show that well-selected measures and/or their optimal combination can substantially decrease the energy consumption and CO2 footprint. Single measures can bring on average about 20 to 30 percents savings while their optimal combination could result even in about 60 to 70 percent saving. Standardization of approaches in the cities, as well as on the functional urban areas level, is needed and recommended.