Editorial for Utilities Policy – Special issue “the new economics and governance of transport networks and services”

Abstract

Selected Papers from Transport Research Arena (2020) in Helsinki, April 27–30, and selected special issue submissions. This special issue of Utilities Policy “The new economics and governance of transport networks and services” highlights new ideas, new approaches and new paradigms regarding the governance and economics of transport services and transport networks. The transport sector faces challenges because of climate change, lack of sustainable finance, and various societal pressures such as urbanization and income inequality, and while technological disruption extends the list of challenges, the opportunities of emerging technologies are also vast. In this context, the economics and governance of the transport system may well need reconfiguration to meet the demands of today as well as tomorrow. This issue was compiled mainly from the submissions to Transport Research Arena 2020 that was planned to be held in Helsinki on April 27–30. Unfortunately, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the conference was cancelled based on the decisions of Finnish state authorities following the recommendations of the State Council. Nonetheless, this issue pursues the planned theme of Transport Research Arena (2020): “Rethinking transport – towards clean and inclusive mobility”. This encompassing theme includes rethinking of economics and governance in the transport sector as we analyze, appraise and develop transport systems. Rethinking is also needed for the entire mobility value chain, starting from the initial need to move from one place to another and ending with sustainable energy sources and minimization of the resources needed for mobility of both people and goods. Reaching the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and keeping on track with Paris Agreement, will require a mountain of research, policymaking, technology investment and practical work. The change will be neither cheap nor easy. In their short article, Kuokkanen et al. (2020) present a personal carbon trade model that helps to define a cap for individual or household carbon releases. Carbon trading has been taken down to individuals in the experiment launched by the City of Lahti in Finland. The technical demonstration of a mobile app that records the carbon release of daily activities is described. It remains to be seen if this type of experiment can be brought to the marketplace and be adopted by citizens. In any case, it is evident that digitalisation offers new possibilities for personal carbon trading and points the way to citizen-led urban transformation. As technology disruptions reshape the economic and governance landscape, there is a need to understand the costs and benefits of the new technologies. When new technology is combined with new business models, such as those based on the sharing economy, there are obvious gaps in our knowledge. Shi et al. (2020) calculate the benefits of sharing electric vehicles in Chongqing, China. Their findings point to the direction where substantial environmental benefits (emissions) and infrastructure benefits (road capacity demand) can be obtained by combining the sharing model and electrification. With sharing, the market penetration rate of electric vehicles can be increased, thus lowering emissions, and both road and parking capacities can be released. Along with digitalisation and electrification, automation and robotization are leaping forward with mixed perceptions from users. However, Papadima et al. (2020) report the trial of driverless buses in the city of Trikala, Greece, and according to their survey the residents and the visitors of the area had a positive view of automated bus vehicles. The drive toward innovation and the prospect of new technologies also challenge the traditional economic logic and old collaboration models. In their article, Leviäkangas and Öörni (2020) develop a business ecosystem based meta-model that includes value proposition, shareholder value, ecosystem or supply chain value, and externalities. The model is verified with a case analysis of co-operative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS). Governance and regulation are playing an important role in facilitating new business ecosystems, while the need to control externalities (e.g. emissions, accidents, and social impacts) set new boundaries for creating value. In a complementary article, Lusikka et al. (2020) propose using an open innovation platform and present the case of a living laboratory bus project. The value creation logic is shown in their “value ramp” concept. The ever-present questions about financing transport systems remain, and it seems that there are no easy answers. Public-private partnerships (PPP) have thus been introduced to relax governments’ financial constraints in the procurement and delivery of infrastructure. In his article, Välilä (2020) discusses the evidence of PPPs in the light of economic theory. He argues that while there is an abundance of economic theoretical literature on PPPs, the empirical scientific literature is scant. This may lead, and probably has led, to a situation where public procurement decisions are strongly influenced by considerations of other than economic efficiency. Nikolić et al. (2020) continue the discussion on PPPs. Their article compares how the previous global financial crisis affected PPP road projects in Europe and Latin America. Whereas Europe saw a more sustained change in the remuneration (payback) schemes from user-paid to government-paid projects, in Latin America, the shift was short and user-paid projects gained popularity again after the crisis. We hope readers enjoy this group of interesting works. We congratulate the researchers for their achievement and thank them for their contribution!