ReVeAL

Despite urgent calls for “smarter urban vehicle access regulations” in the Urban Mobility Package and other high-level political commitments, very few decision makers are keen on going public with the idea of restricting car access (in time or space) in urban areas. ReVeAL will help to add Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVAR) to the standard range of urban mobility transition approaches of cities across Europe. Toward this end, the ReVeAL consortium will combine conceptual work and case study research with hands-on UVAR implementation in six pilot cities and systematic stakeholder interaction and professional communication activities. The pilot cities of Helmond, Jerusalem, London, Padova, Vitoria-Gasteiz and the project leader Bielefeld are committed to developing, implementing, testing and evaluating UVAR measures in one or more of four “Measure Fields”: 1) Zero Emission Zones, 2) Spatial Interventions, 3) Pricing Measures and – through a process called “sandboxing” – 4) some innovate Future Options (C-ITS, geo-fencing etc.). ReVeAL considers the implementation of UVAR measures a necessary part of a wider transition management challenge and therefore ensures comprehensive and coordinated changes to multiple elements of the urban transport system. Most prominently, these aspects fall into four “Transition Areas”: Governance and Financing; User Needs/Acceptance; Mobility Concepts; and System Design/Technology – all of which play a role in any change process. With its built-in mechanisms to accompany, document and analyse the processes and impacts in the six pilot cities, ReVeAL will be able to systematically extract lessons learned and thus support the wider roll-out of smart UVAR approaches across Europe. A key strategy towards this goal is the provision of practical decision support tools and advice on the integration of UVAR in SUMPs. ReVeAL will result in an online Decision Support Tool, which includes a UVAR Readiness Assessment and a UVAR Process Advisor.