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R.M. Shortall

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Journal article (2022) - Ruth Shortall, Niek Mouter, Bert van Wee
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the introduction of transport-related policy measures worldwide. In this paper, we review the literature on factors that are important for the design of those measures, and their effects on safety, physical and mental health, economy and environment. We conclude that factors underlying the introduction of transport related measures are related to the broader discussion on COVID-19 measures (e.g. on social distancing). This makes it impossible to determine the independent influence of determinants aimed at transport on the effects (virus spread, economy, well-being). Furthermore, the effects of measures appear to differ strongly between countries. Important determinants for these effects are (1) socio-economic factors, (2) cultural factors, (3) political factors and (4) individual factors. In addition, the extent to which people can work at home appears to be very important for the introduction and effectiveness of COVID-19 measures. In the category of 'cultural factors', the degree to which people have a 'sense of civic responsibility' and trust in the government and institutions plays a major role in the compliance with advice and coercive measures. Furthermore, experiences with previous viruses appear to have made a positive contribution to COVID-19 policies that are successful at containing the virus. Finally, individual factors play a role in the compliance with COVID-19 measures. For example, a pro-social attitude is associated with better compliance. And: if people rate the effectiveness of such measures higher, they are more likely to act on them. The paper also provides recommendations for policy and further research. ...

Deel 1: een review van maatregelen wereldwijd

Journal article (2021) - R.M. Shortall, N. Mouter, Bert van Wee
Als reactie op de COVID-19 pandemie zijn wereldwijd veel transport gerelateerde maatregelen getroffen, en die maatregelen hebben vele maatschappelijk relevante effecten gehad. Doel van dit paper is de literatuur te reviewen die tot eind 2020 over dit onderwerp beschikbaar was. Het is daarmee een tussentijdse stand van zaken. De review beoogt een overzicht van getroffen maatregelen en hun effecten te geven, en te reflecteren op de vraag welke kennis er momenteel beschikbaar is en wat daarvan de merites zijn, en een korte onderzoekagenda te presenteren. Dit paper stelt een indeling voor van COVID-19 maatregelen gericht op personenmobiliteit. We onderscheiden de categorieën ‘vermijden van verplaatsingen’, ‘veranderen van vervoerwijzen’ en ‘verbeteren van de kwaliteit’. Per categorie onderscheiden we verschillende soorten maatregelen en effecten. Vervolgens reviewen we de literatuur op dit terrein, waarna we de beleidsrelevantie van onze bevindingen bediscussiëren,. We concluderen dat brede beoordelingen van maatregelen op alle maatschappelijk relevante effecten nauwelijks voorkomen. Verder ontbreken vaak integrale beschouwingen over gezondheidseffecten, rekening houdend met directe effecten (virusoverdracht) en indirecte effecten (zoals gerelateerd aan stress en beweging). ...
Book chapter (2021) - Ruth Shortall, Niek Mouter
Governments are involved in transport policy and planning in many ways. Quite often, policy makers want to make decisions that are informed by the expected positive and negative impacts of transport policy options. Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) is the most widely used appraisal method to inform policy makers about impacts of transport policies and projects. CBA is grounded in welfare economics, which provides strict procedures guiding the criteria/impacts to be considered in the analysis and the weighting of impacts. The rigor of CBA is considered to be a strength of the method, but both academics and practitioners find it problematic that CBAs degrade or ignore social, ethical (and to a lesser extent, environmental) dimensions of transport policies. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a review of the literature with regard to: (1) critiques of the way that social and ethical dimensions of transport are (not) included in CBA; (2) developments in the literature aiming to better include such dimensions in CBA or related appraisal methods grounded in welfare economics; (3) discussion of the way that social and ethical dimensions of transport are included in other appraisal methods such as Sustainability Assessment, Multicriteria Analysis (MCA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA). ...
Journal article (2021) - Ruth Shortall, Niek Mouter, Bert Van Wee
Governments all over the world have had to implement various policy measures in order to curb the spread of COVID-19, impacting many people's lives and livelihoods. Combinations of measures targeting the transportation sector and other aspects of social life have been implemented with varying degrees of success in different countries. This paper proposes a classification of COVID-19 measures aimed at passenger mobility. We distinguish the categories “avoidance of travel”, “modal shift” and “improvement of quality”. Per category, we distinguish different types of measures and effects (social, economic and environmental). Next, we review the literature on COVID-19 measures for passenger mobility, after which we discuss the policy relevance of our findings and propose a research agenda. We conclude that broad or integral assessments of measures on all socially relevant effects are rare. Also, few studies exist to determine the effects of individual measures and deal with combinations of measures instead. Studies on social or economic effects focus on partial direct effects (e.g. turnover of the transport sector, effect of mobility measures on commuter traffic) and do not elaborate on indirect effects (e.g. changes in household expenditure, stress levels). Finally, there is a greater focus in the literature on intermediary health indicators (e.g. travel behaviour) but less on the actual spread of COVID-19 or indeed on other indirect health effects of measures (e.g. due to air pollution, more exercise, etc). ...

Participatory value evaluation as a new practice of public participation in the Dutch energy transition

To achieve a successful energy transition, it is vital to integrate citizens’ needs into government policies through participatory processes. However, offline participatory approaches can be overly intensive which leads to an over-representation of citizens who think that the issue is in their immediate interest. Hence, elected officials often question the extent to which participants’ priorities are a good proxy to represent “the public”. Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) potentially circumvents this by allowing a large and diverse group of citizens to advise their government in an accessible manner. In an online environment, citizens step into the shoes of a policy maker and see which policy options the government considers, while being informed about the impacts. Next, they are asked to provide advice. Because PVE was originally designed as an economic evaluation method, it is unclear whether it can be deployed for effective participation. This study investigates how PVE could be deployed for effective participation of citizens in the energy transition through a real-world experiment in the Netherlands. We aimed to conduct the PVE in line with goals of stakeholders which is the most important requirement for effective participation. We fully achieved three goals that were defined by stakeholders: PVE enables participation of people that normally do not participate (particularly young people); low time investment of civil servants; outcomes of a PVE should be useful for decision-making. We partly achieved two goals: PVE raises awareness among citizens about decisions and implications of the energy transition; participation should be meaningful for citizens. ...

Deel 2: een review van factoren van belang voor ontwerp van maatregelen en hun effecten

Journal article (2021) - R.M. Shortall, N. Mouter, Bert van Wee
De COVID-19 pandemie heeft wereldwijd geleid tot maatregelen gericht op personenmobiliteit (Shortall et al., 2021). In dit paper reviewen we de literatuur over factoren van belang voor het ontwerp van die maatregelen, en de effecten ervan op veiligheid, lichamelijke en geestelijke gezondheid, economie en milieu. Zo’n review is van belang om te begrijpen waarom landen en steden bepaalde maatregelen wel of niet hebben ingevoerd, en waarom die bepaalde effecten hebben gehad. Dat begrip is nuttig voor het ontwerp van nieuw beleid. Factoren die ten grondslag liggen aan de invoering van transport gerelateerde maatregelen, hangen samen met de bredere discussie over COVID-19 maatregelen (o.a. t.a.v. social distancing). Daardoor is het niet mogelijk de zelfstandige invloed van determinanten gericht op transport, op de effecten (virusverspreiding, economie, welbevinden) vast te stellen. Verder blijken effecten van maatregelen sterk te verschillen tussen landen. Belangrijke determinanten voor die effecten zijn (1) socio-economische, (2) culturele, (3) politieke en (4) individuele factoren. Daarnaast blijkt de mate waarin mensen thuis kunnen werken, zeer belangrijk te zijn voor de invoering en effectiviteit van COVID-19 maatregelen. De mate waarin mensen ‘burgerzin’ hebben en vertrouwen in de overheid en instituties speelt een grote rol voor de naleving van adviezen en dwingende maatregelen. Ervaringen met eerdere virussen lijken een positieve bijdrage te hebben geleverd aan succesvol COVID-19 beleid. Een pro-sociale attitude gaat gepaard met een betere naleving. Als mensen de effectiviteit van dergelijke maatregelen hoger inschatten, handelen ze er meer naar. Het paper geeft verder aanbevelingen voor beleid en verder onderzoek. ...
Book chapter (2020) - Ruth Shortall
Deliberative appraisal methods have gained popularity in recent years, due to an increased demand for public participation in government decision-making. There is a recognition that transportation policy appraisals need to take account of a diversity of views and disciplines, for which deliberative approaches are considered ideal. In comparison with other forms of citizen consultation or participation, deliberative approaches are regarded as the most promising in terms of fulfilling democratic ideals such as inclusiveness, equity and transparency. They are hence also likely to increase the legitimacy of decisions. Due to their unique characteristics, deliberative appraisal methods hold the potential to resolve some of the issues associated with commonly used traditional appraisal methods. Because of this, approaches that combine both traditional analytic and deliberative aspects are increasingly sought after, but remain in the early stages. Deliberation is based on the premise that a diverse group of citizens, if given adequate information, resources and time to deliberate on a given topic, can produce a rational, informed judgment. Participants must consider a question from multiple viewpoints, exchange perspectives, opinions, and understandings and think critically about all possible options. This process has been shown to build civic capacity, produce better decisions and provide unique and useful insights for policy-makers. A deliberative event may include a small group of participants or many hundreds. Purely deliberative approaches may result in qualitative outputs such as a verdict or report, whereas analytic-deliberative approaches may involve monetizing values, voting or ranking in order to reach workable recommendations. While the application of deliberative approaches in the transport domain is still in its early stages, this chapter provides an overview of the best-known deliberative approaches in use in policy-making today as well as introducing new developments in the physical and online spaces. ...