THE SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY- CONGESTION NEXUS: A CO-BENEFITS APPROACH TO FINDING WIN-WIN SOLUTIONS

This study aims to qualitatively assess the global and local environmental co-benefits from implementing sustainable mobility policy strategies to tackle environmental externalities of the road transport sector, in New Delhi (India) and Toyama (Japan). To this end, policy packages to pursue congestion reduction have been evaluated, including promotion of public transport infrastructure and soft-mode programs. The analysis suggests that implementing a co-benefit approach to simultaneously reduce global (GHG) and local air pollutant emissions can tackle urban congestion and simultaneously promote social equity and economic prosperity. The co-benefits approach is flexible to many different contexts as the nature of co-benefits can vary according to local priorities. The implication of this is that that integration of climate concerns can be mainstreamed into transport policy across many levels of development.