Making urban freight transport more sustainable in a medium sized city: the case of Mechelen

Urban freight transport (UFT) poses an increasingly complex challenge for cities, as rising volumes of parcels lead to growing numbers of small delivery vans in urban traffic, while simultaneously larger trucks are still required to supply retail chains. Finding a balance between improving the liveability of city centres by creating pedestrian areas and low traffic zones while simultaneously aiming to promote the city centre as on open air shopping centre requires innovative solutions to get freight and passenger flows in and out in a sustainable manner.
Mechelen in Belgium is a medium sized city of some 83.000 inhabitants, with policy aims to improve energy efficiency and CO2 reduction by lowering the emission factors of local freight transport and bundling of freight flows. In order to determine which solution is most feasible to implement as a pilot in the short run, an evaluation framework that has been developed in a Flemish research project (IWT-SBO ULM) was tested.
In this paper, first the policy evaluation framework will be described. For the development of this framework, that incorporates four assessment methodologies as well as an indicator set, four general guiding principles were defined. First, the framework was set-up to incorporate the triple bottom line (TBL) concept of sustainability, in order to account for economic, environmental and social or societal concerns with regards to UFT. The second principle is stakeholder visibility, as previous research has demonstrated that the level of successful introduction of UFT measures is low when solutions are implemented without stakeholder discussion and involvement. The third principle is practicability for the policy-maker, as evaluation frameworks will not be used for policy guidance in practice when they are deemed complex and not easy to use. The fourth principle is participation, which is enabled both by the various opportunities that new data-gathering options provide, as well as by the use of the multi-actor multi-criteria analysis methodology or MAMCA. MAMCA is an evaluation method that focuses specifically on the inclusion of qualitative and quantitative criteria, defined by multiple stakeholders, and plays a central role in the evaluation framework. In addition, the indicator set developed within the IWT-SBO ULM project occupies a central position in the policy evaluation framework and is currently composed of 42 indicators that monitor the sustainability of mobility and logistics in urban environments. These indicators in turn can feed into an external cost calculation (ECC) tool, which enables to convert externalities caused by transportation into monetary values.
Secondly, the paper will describe the testing of the evaluation framework for a particular case study in Mechelen, where the objective is to identify a UFT policy measure that is to be implemented in a pilot project. First, six potential urban freight policy measures to improve sustainability were identified out of a long list of UFT measures in consultation with city officials. As this exercise involves several alternatives that have an impact on multiple stakeholders, MAMCA was selected as assessment methodology in the evaluation framework. This approach included performing a stakeholder analysis in order to identify all parties affected by the proposed solutions, as well as identifying the criteria and their relative importance for all stakeholders. In the Mechelen case, the MAMCA evaluation exercise was carried out in a twofold approach. On the one hand, a workshop was organised where a selection of all relevant stakeholder groups participated in a practical exercise to identify criteria weights and evaluate alternatives. On the other hand, the exercise was also carried out through a desktop research, where weight assessment and alternative evaluation was based on scientific literature and project reports with regards to the selected alternatives. Both results were compared.
Thirdly, the paper describes how the results of the evaluation framework are used in practice to identify a pilot project for Mechelen, as there is currently no clear best scoring alternative (and this might be more rule than exception in most UFT cases). This selection process is therefore still ongoing, but some interesting results can already be shared. Current steps will be discussed and suggestions for next steps will be given. Once implemented, objective is to monitor and evaluate the pilot based on the indicator set that is included in the evaluation framework.
The paper will end with conclusions and some recommendations for improving the assessment of urban freight policies.