European Commission CIVITAS II Project
Norwich & Norfolk, East of England
PROJECT TEAM & PARTNERS
- University of East Anglia
- Anglian Buses
- First Group
- City Car Club
- Norwich City Council
- Norfolk County Council
CONTRACT VALUE
£5,000,000
FUNDING
European Commission TREN funding and UK Capital match funding
TIMESCALE
4 Years
DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT
The Broad objective of this project is to improve air quality and create a sustainable, safe and flexible traffic system that improves the quality of life in the cities involved in the project and, by disseminating information from the project, to facilitate these improvements in other cities in within the EU.
In essence this translates into:-
- Use of alternative fuels and cleaner vehicles for better air quality.
- Encouraging modal shift from the private car to public transport; and more efficient use of cars.
There are 17 different measures which have been delivered in Norwich encompassing these themes. Norwich is involved with, amongst other things:
- Alternative Fuel trials - buses. Police vehicles, taxis;
- Cleaner vehicles _ buses, Fire Service vehicles, Police vehicles and goods vehicles, using charges to encourage smaller cars.
- Low Emission Zones - Castle Meadow (the first LEZ outside London)
- Priority access for cleaner goods vehicles and urban transhipment centre.
- Modal change - Rail station interchange, on-street ticketing and information, travel planning and goods delivery to Park and Ride.
- More efficient use of cars through car pooling and car clubs.
PROJECT TARGETS & LEGISLATION
Carbon Reduction measuring:
Detailed results and outcomes will be published in the "Evaluation Reports" to appear on the CIVITAS web site:- www.civitas-initiatives.org
LEGISLATION
- Norwich Area Traffic Strategy and Norfolk County Council Local Transport Plan;
- Advanced trial initiatives to the EU GREEN PAPER towards a new culture for urban mobility
INNOVATIVE PRACTICE & OBJECTIVES
Innovative aspects amongst the measures implemented are given below:
Influencing the choice of vehicle towards smaller and more fuel
efficient cars
The purpose of this measure is to influence the choice of vehicle
that residents choose to own in Norwich's Controlled Parking
Zones through a pricing and permit structure by providing benefits
to those who choose smaller, more fuel efficient or alternative
fuel vehicles. This will benefit the quality of the environment in
terms of air quality and townscape by making better use of the
restricted facilities available.
Clean vehicle trials
- Setting up a biodiesel laboratory to monitor fuel quality and developing spectroscopic methods to monitor fuelblend levels.
- Collaboration with a manufacturer of high quality sustainable biodiesel and a local fuel supply company to establish a supply chain with heated and lagged storage tank avoiding precipitation problems in cold weather.
- Equipping buses with exhaust monitoring equipment to monitor NOx emissions in real-time on the road in order to compare emissions from biodiesel with ULSD.
Low emission zones
- The measure comprises the introduction of a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) in the City Centre covering the Castle AQMA and one objective was to meet UK regulation (40 μg/m3 [21ppb]) for annual average NO2 levels and UK objective (20 μg/m3) for annual average particle (PM10) levels.
Priority access for clean goods vehicles
- Allow sharing of priority collective transport priority lanes to freight operators who respect cleaner urban transport principles.
- Increase the proportion of urban goods vehicle transport, which meets pre-determined emission control standards.
- Work in partnership with goods operators who respect clean urban transport principles in order to facilitate their journeys in the Norwich area and mitigate the negative effects of urban freight transport on other network users.
Modal change (e.g. Rail Station Interchange)
- The principal objective of the measure is to enhance the integration of public transport by improving the effective frequency of bus services from the station forecourt to the city centre. It was hoped that this would enable Norwich public transport to increase its modal share, particularly through increasing the use of heavy rail for local journeys.
Car pooling
- The overall objective of the measure is to encourage employees to car share, thus bringing about reductions in congestion and harmful emissions from road transport. An initial objective is to re-launch and re-brand an existing car pooling (sharing) web tool, to make matching journeys much easier.
- Developing the link between car pooling (sharing) schemes and organisations which are developing workplace travel plans.
CONTACT DETAILS
Chris Mitchell
E-mail: chris.mitchell@norfolk.gov.uk
