An Overview on Costs of Shifting
to Sustainable Road Transport:
A Challenge for Cities Worldwide
Andrea Souza Santos, Victor Hugo Souza de Abreu, Tassia Faria de Assis,
Suzana Kahn Ribeiro, and Glaydston Mattos Ribeiro
Abstract The transport sector plays a fundamental role in economic and social
development in the urban context; however, it has a significant impact on air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions and the natural resource depletion. Therefore,
this chapter seeks to identify, through a bibliographic review on road transportation
and the Sustainable Development Goals, synergies and trade-offs between climate
policies and transportation. Some actions to mitigate the impacts of road transportation on the environment were identified, based on the ASI (Avoid, Shift and
Improve) approach considering aspects as high energy efficiency, low pollution and
high capacity. Finally, this chapter presents some mitigation measures for the road
transportation based on six categories and discuss the cost of shifting to road sustainable transport, which is a gap in the current literature. The results indicate that it is
necessary to establish a rational transport structure with a good governance, opportunities for finance, transparency and a medium and long-term vision, prioritizing
actions to incentive active transportation, that in general, has low-medium costs,
in comparison to great transformations in the infrastructure of cities to implement
Metro and Light-rail transit (LRT) systems, for example, that is also urgent and has
a (very) high cost. All actions are important to promote sustainable cities toward a
low carbon transport.
A. S. Santos (B) · V. H. S. de Abreu · T. F. de Assis · S. K. Ribeiro · G. M. Ribeiro
Transport Engineering Program (PET), Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and
Research in Engineering (COPPE), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
e-mail: andrea.santos@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
V. H. S. de Abreu
e-mail: victor@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
T. F. de Assis
e-mail: tassiafa@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
S. K. Ribeiro
e-mail: skr@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
G. M. Ribeiro
e-mail: glaydston@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to
Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
S. S. Muthu (eds.), Carbon Footprint Case Studies, Environmental Footprints
and Eco-design of Products and Processes, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9577-6_4
93
to Sustainable Road Transport:
A Challenge for Cities Worldwide
Andrea Souza Santos, Victor Hugo Souza de Abreu, Tassia Faria de Assis,
Suzana Kahn Ribeiro, and Glaydston Mattos Ribeiro
Abstract The transport sector plays a fundamental role in economic and social
development in the urban context; however, it has a significant impact on air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions and the natural resource depletion. Therefore,
this chapter seeks to identify, through a bibliographic review on road transportation
and the Sustainable Development Goals, synergies and trade-offs between climate
policies and transportation. Some actions to mitigate the impacts of road transportation on the environment were identified, based on the ASI (Avoid, Shift and
Improve) approach considering aspects as high energy efficiency, low pollution and
high capacity. Finally, this chapter presents some mitigation measures for the road
transportation based on six categories and discuss the cost of shifting to road sustainable transport, which is a gap in the current literature. The results indicate that it is
necessary to establish a rational transport structure with a good governance, opportunities for finance, transparency and a medium and long-term vision, prioritizing
actions to incentive active transportation, that in general, has low-medium costs,
in comparison to great transformations in the infrastructure of cities to implement
Metro and Light-rail transit (LRT) systems, for example, that is also urgent and has
a (very) high cost. All actions are important to promote sustainable cities toward a
low carbon transport.
A. S. Santos (B) · V. H. S. de Abreu · T. F. de Assis · S. K. Ribeiro · G. M. Ribeiro
Transport Engineering Program (PET), Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Graduate Studies and
Research in Engineering (COPPE), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
e-mail: andrea.santos@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
V. H. S. de Abreu
e-mail: victor@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
T. F. de Assis
e-mail: tassiafa@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
S. K. Ribeiro
e-mail: skr@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
G. M. Ribeiro
e-mail: glaydston@pet.coppe.ufrj.br
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to
Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
S. S. Muthu (eds.), Carbon Footprint Case Studies, Environmental Footprints
and Eco-design of Products and Processes, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9577-6_4
93