Strategies and instruments for low-carbon urban transport: An international review on trends and effects

Designing low-carbon urban transport systems is a key element in realising low-carbon cities for tackling the climate change issues on an urban scale. Low-carbon transport measures can be classified according to their strategies and instruments. It is more useful for decision making to identify what options are more feasible and effective among available ones in each type of cities. This paper gives an overview of the trends and effects of low-carbon measures for urban transport, dependent upon the development stages and types of urban land-use transport systems. Typical measures affecting low-carbon transport systems all over the world are classified through the CUTE matrix to capture the trends. Then, their prospective effects on CO2 mitigation are discussed by reviewing empirical studies. These reviews show that the feasibility and effectiveness of transport strategies are significantly affected by the development process of cities. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.