New financial arrangements for sustainable mobility

These are two examples of new, creative financial arrangements that help in efforts to scale up and anchor system innovations in the field of mobility. The arrangements imply a new approach to one or more of the following aspects of financing: time, actors (new parties or old parties with new roles) and methods of settlement.

I Rewarding rush-hour avoidance

The Netherlands faces major problems with mobility. For years there has been talk about innovations such as a rush hour sticker, road pricing and a kilometre levy. The basic principle behind all of these concepts is that the motorist should pay more during rush hours and on busy roads than elsewhere and at other times. Transumo (a platform for sustainable mobility comprising companies, public authorities and research institutes) turned that principle around. Under the new arrangement proposed by Transumo, motorists would be rewarded for avoiding traffic jams: they would be paid a few euro for every rush hour they avoided.

Promising results

The results of the study and the practical trials were very promising. Transumo then developed a product formula for rush hour-avoidance projects and similar projects are now springing up throughout the Netherlands.

 II Green car insurance

Insurance companies have been selling new ‘green' car insurance for the last few years. Some offer financial benefits for the motorist, such as insurance policies under which repairs are carried out with used parts rather than new ones.

New agreements on quality assurance

The quality of the repairs is guaranteed and the parts are certified. New agreements have been made on this between the insurance industry, recycling companies and garages. In practice the logistics of supplying the used parts increased the costs, but because the group of policy holders made fewer claims the insurer can still offer a lower premium.

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