Advancing technologies and innovation in sustainable mobility: how ready and mature are countries’ regulatory frameworks? We find out with the ‘Compliance Map’ of the European GECKO project
New technologies and innovations in the mobility sector, which are spreading very fast, undoubtedly represent a real opportunity for European cities, regions and countries, providing tools that enable them to pursue their strategic objectives towards a cooperative, inclusive, competitive, sustainable and interconnected mobility in support of the European Commission’s strategies, the decarbonisation of cities and the Green Deal.
However, sometimes innovation precedes the regulatory framework that is able to guarantee the principles of equity and social protectionand competition rules, and to establish the criteria and modalities for testing, introducing and disseminating innovation so that they are able to maximise potential in the pursuit of local/national objectives, while identifying and managing potential risks for citizens and the mobility industry. Then there are cases where the requirements set by local and central governments are so stringent that they do not stimulate market interest or are such that they do not guarantee the sustainability of business models.
Regulators and policy makers are therefore often overwhelmed by the challenge of keeping up with the speed of market innovation.
For this reason, the European project GECKO ‘Governance principles and mEthods enabling deCision maKers to manage and regulate the changing mObility systems’ aims to provide support to authorities by developing a set of tools and recommendations to support the definition of new regulatory frameworks that are able to adapt – if not anticipate – innovations by ensuring balanced governance.
FIT Consulting’s role
FIT, one of the key partners of the GECKO project, is responsible, among other things, for mapping the regulatory framework, assessing impacts and perspectives in different countries on a global scale, enabling positive impacts of innovation in mobility by improving the environment, economies, inclusion and quality of life.
At GECKO, FIT developed an ad-hoc evaluation method based on Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA), aimed at assessing how effective each regulatory framework is in adopting new solutions and how ready it is for future levels of market penetration.
The results of the assessment are depicted on an interactive map, the Compliance Map, available on the official GECKO website.
The tool allows a guided search (using filtering criteria – by country or city, by mobility solution, by category, etc.) and, thanks to the use of a visual data analysis platform for the development of the Compliance Map, the data can be used in an accessible and comprehensible way, thanks to a dynamic visualisation and interactive panel.
For a key and accurate analysis, two indices have been defined: Regulatory Compliance (RC) and Regulatory Readiness to Respond to New Needs Resulting from Innovations (RR). The RC index shows how effectively each country or city regulates the different aspects necessary for the sustainable adoption of new mobility solutions, while the RR index provides a holistic assessment of the level of response to changes in each country’s regulatory framework in accommodating the introduction or diffusion of different mobility solutions, according to their respective levels of penetration.
The ratings resulting from the two indices are displayed on the Compliance Map with a colour scale that is darker in tone the more the framework complies with the objectives.
Measuring the level of compliance of a legislative framework helps policy-makers in an accurate assessment of the impact of regulation and to identify/anticipate factors that may potentially hinder a wide diffusion of new efficient business models, new services and technologies, and the definition of governance that is adherent to the solutions introduced.
The Compliance Map was presented for the first time to GECKO stakeholders on 13 and 14 April on the occasion of the third workshop of the project in which political decision-makers, representatives of the academic and research world and transport operators participated.
