Knowledge integration in policy development and assessment for sustainable passenger transport transformation
Karl W. Steininger, Alfred Posch, Annina Thaller, Christoph Romirer, Raphaela Maier, Eva Fleiß, Georg Jäger, Stefan Nabernegg, Simon Plakolb, Holger Heinfellner, Oswald Thaller, Eva Schulev-Steindl
Abstract
Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions has emerged as a crucial challenge for the passenger transport system. We introduce an inter- and transdisciplinary scheme for the development and assessment of socially and politically feasible transport policy packages to achieve net-zero transport emissions and illustrate the scheme via application to the EU member state of Austria. We find mutual disciplinary dependencies as well as the need for co-generation between science and practice, with a varying mix of stakeholders and disciplines relevant across different scheme steps. Results show that the assessment of legal feasibility and in particular proportionality rely on socioeconomic analysis. While economic incentives are crucial, an early announced ban on fossil fuel cars is needed to fully achieve carbon neutrality. Infrastructure development and education also need prompt redirection to keep the economic transition costs low. Overall, a such redesigned transport system imposes lower costs for society, providing a further implementation incentive.