New urban mobility options, we have plenty of; informed assessments of which are optimum options, we don’t have enough of.
So informed contributions to the latter are important resources for helping commuters, industries and governments make better decisions on developing and cultivating the use of the most energy-efficient and least environmentally harmful urban mobility options for their communities. The International Transport Forum’s (ITF) Good To Go? Assessing the Environmental Performance of New Mobility qualifies as one of those valued contributions. The report assesses the 21st century’s new wealth of mobility technology based on the full-life-cycle fallout from its operations, maintenance, reliability and energy use. Full-life-cycle assessment is critical if we are to accurately gauge the overall impact of transportation technology. After all, if the power generated to recharge batteries for electric cars is dirty, the overall benefit of driving them compared with their internal combustion engine counterparts becomes far less environmentally advantageous. Other full-life-cycle considerations include the manufacturing processes used to produce urban mobility components and how they are eventually recycled or discarded. Progressing along the road to fully sustainable goods and people movement will require what the ITF notes is a well-informed mix of general and specific policies that support industrial innovation and economic productivity and are not exclusively focused on environmental considerations. The ITF’s recommendations range from standardizing ways of measuring the life-cycle emissions of e-bikes, mopeds and other micro-mobility options to instituting minimum performance requirements for transportation technologies and strengthening synergies between public transportation and micro-mobility options. These might not be headline-grabbing actions. They are just the incremental steps that are fundamental to the success of any meaningful journey.
