Scientific research about climate change mitigation in transport: A critical review

Abstract

This paper seeks to develop a deeper understanding of the research on climate change mitigation in transport. We suggest that work to date has focused on the effects of improvements in transport technologies, changes in the price of transport, physical infrastructure provision, behavioural change and alternative institutional arrangements for governing transport systems. In terms of research methodologies, positivist and quantitative analysis prevails, although there are signs of experimentation with non-positivist epistemologies and participatory methods. These particular engagements with climate change mitigation reflect mutually reinforcing tendencies within and beyond the academic transport community. We first draw on a revised version of Thomas Kuhn's philosophy of science to explore the path dependencies within transport studies, which are at least partly responsible for the predisposition towards quantitative modelling and technology, pricing and infrastructure oriented interventions in transport systems. We then employ the governmentality perspective to examine how transport academics' engagements with climate change mitigation depend on and align with more general understandings of climate change in UK society and beyond. The analysis makes clear that ecological modernisation and neo-liberal governmentality more generally provide the context for the current focus on and belief in technological, behaviour change, and especially market-based mitigation strategies. While current research trajectories are important and insightful, we believe that a deeper engagement with theoretical insights from the social sciences produce richer understandings of transport mitigation in transport and briefly outline some of the contributions thinking on socio-technical transitions and practice theories can make.

Viewpoint: Transport's digital age transition

“…This echoes the same view by Schwanen et al (2011Schwanen et al ( , 1002 who go on to suggest that "most research is predicated on the use of quantitative methods embedded in positivist epistemological frameworks." Both observations point to a deficit of multi-and indeed inter-disciplinary thinking in understanding and responding to the complex socio-technical systems of both transport and wider society.…”

Demonstration of reduced airport congestion through pushback rate control

“…While there has been a significant amount of prior research on the climate impacts of transportation, including aviation (Vespermann and Wald, 2011;Schwanen et al, 2011), there has been less focus on the impact of airport operations. Airport congestion management research has typically focused more on administrative policies such as congestion pricing and slot restrictions, and less on congestion control strategies (Hamzawi, 1992;Madas and Zografos, 2008;Mehndiratta and Kiefer, 2003).…”

Consumer structure in the emerging market for electric vehicles: Identifying market segments using cluster analysis

“…EVs have the potential to improve the energy efficiency, energy security and reduce the carbon intensity of passenger vehicle transport (Contestabile et al 2012;Odeh et al 2013). The diffusion of EVs into the mainstream vehicle fleet is regarded as a primary means through which the environmental sustainability of the United Kingdom's (UK) transport system will be improved (DfT, 2009;Schwanen et al 2011;OLEV, 2013). This diffusion has been further clarified through an appreciation of how the transport system may transition onto a low carbon trajectory (Geels, 2012;Whitmarsh, 2012;Epprecht et al 2014) and what that trajectory may involve for the passenger vehicle market (Struben and Sterman, 2008;van Bree et al 2010;Offer et al 2011;Köhler et al 2013, Steinhilber et al 2013).…”