Economic and environmental analysis of measures from a sustainable urban mobility plan: a case study

Abstract

Urban mobility causes significant negative externalities namely emissions from individual transport. Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) have been designed and implemented in an attempt to reduce transport-related externalities, setting several measures to improve the efficiency and sustainability of urban mobility. The assessment of environmental and economic impacts of the measures predicted in a SUMP can be potentially useful for supporting decision-making and encouraging policy makers to implement the proposed measures with success. In this paper, a case study is performed to analyze the economic and environmental impacts of the measures predicted in a SUMP of a small sized city in Portugal. It consists of estimating the emissions and external costs for a base live scenario and after the measures are implemented, as well as to perform an economic analysis based in economic indicators such as Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). All the measures equated showed a great potential of emissions reduction. One of the measures can reach a CO2 reduction of about 9% and a reduction of external costs of around 11%. The measures were all aggregated as a single project, analyzing the economic aspects, using the external costs as a mean of economic measurement, it was possible to conclude that the project is profitable after 6 years and half with a NPV of 1.245.448€ and an IRR of 10% (which is above the discount rate of 2,3%).