Road traffic in Kenya is growing rapidly. As a result, greenhouse gas emissions are also rising. INFRAS has calculated how much CO₂ could be saved with four mitigation options in the transport sector. The greatest reduction potential would come from more efficient freight transport.

About eight out of ten certified climate protection projects in the period 2012 – 2020 would most probably also have been implemented without the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This is the conclusion of an analysis issued on behalf of the EU Commission.

New tram routes in the city of Basle, direct accessibility to the A18 motorway at Aesch and an upgrading to a mobility hub of the border and customs point Lörrach-Riehen: These are important measures of the new agglomeration programme of the Basle region. The programme has been developed in joint collaboration by many actors from Germany, France and Switzerland. INFRAS has accompanied the process closely and has contributed to establishing the programme report.  

This is how the transportation of goods and city logistics may work in the future: underground, fully automated and funded by the private sector. How strongly can traffic be reduced by CST? How can the logistics industry and Switzerland as a logistics hub gain from CST? How can Switzerland's economy as a whole benefit from CST? And how does the CST concept meet the requirements of spatial planning? A study carried out by INFRAS on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Transport (FOT) provides answers.

In collaboration with the federal offices concerned, the Federal Office for Spatial Development ARE calculated how transport in Switzerland will develop up to 2040. In the reference scenario, the person-kilometres travelled will increase by a quarter by 2040. This is slightly less than projected population growth. By 2040, the share of all transport accounted for by public transport will rise by four percentage points. Assuming a 46 % increase in GDP, both the volume of freight transport and the tonne-kilometres transported will rise by 37 %. The cost of transporting freight by road will increase more than the cost of rail transport, so the modal split in terms of tonne-kilometres will shift by two percentage points towards the railways. (Photo: ARE)

Through an expansion of the infrastructure for the railway and the combined transport and also through the funding, inter alia, by an extended truck toll scheme and by increased rail track charges: That is how Germany can shift a significant part of the freight transport services from the road onto the railway until 2030. By doing so, the national economy makes a contribution to the international climate protection and could reduce environmental costs within Germany. Furthermore, there is a benefit due to the user financing regarding domestic added value and employment – not least because of the contribution coming from foreign consignors, consignees and transport operators.

The Alpine regions still face a high need for action to improve the environmental situation along the transit corridors. Air quality limits are exceeded, the modal shift from road to rail is stagnating (with the expection of Gotthard). Thus, the region Rhône-Alpes, the Provinces of Bolzano and Trento, the Regions of Aosta Valley and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, the Piemonte, the Canton of Ticino, Central Switzerland, the Land of Tyrol and the Accademia Europea di Bolzano successfully continued their cooperation in 2015 to further specify elements of their common transport strategy. Especially, a proposition – developed by iMONITRAF! - for a Toll Plus system from the perspective of the regions was documented in an in-depth report, which was discussed on technical as well as political level in 2015.

Not only road traffic, but also non-road mobile machinery like construction machines, agricultural vehicles or garden-care appliances emit significant quantities of air pollutants. The updated non-road inventory of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) quantifies these emissions for Switzerland and shows past and future trends. For the calculations with the INFRAS Non-road Emissions Model, a large amount of data was processed, which was compiled with the commendable support of numerous stakeholders. The results are available as a report of the FOEN series «Environmental studies» as well as via an online database.

In order to define traffic coverage quality, there are currently various transport mode based studies. In Planning, so far, the most common are the public transport quality classes (ÖV-Güteklassen). However, there has been a lack of an intermodal view, i.e. motorised private transport, public transport as well as pedestrian and cycle traffic. In the present research work (VSS 2011/106) INFRAS and Ernst Basler + Partner demonstrate the requirements, the methodical approaches and limitations through to standardised integrated coverage qualities  in terms of a baseline report. A methodical two-step concept with quantitative und qualitative criterias was tested using case studies and in principle considered suitable. As a final step, a draft for a basic principle norm was developed.