International Case Studies on Public Communication and Consultation Strategies for Low Emission Zones and Congestion Charging Schemes

The working paper is part of the “Low Emission Zone/Congestion Charge (LEZ/CC) Public Communication Strategies” series of papers to offer a comprehensive package of public communication strategies to safeguard successful implementation. It is the first paper in the series, and studies 10 cases from Europe, Asia, and the United States to highlight the variety of social, political, and environmental contexts within which CC and LEZ schemes were planned and implemented. From the examples studied, two types of consultation process were identified; scientific/professional and consultative/political. All of the international case studies highlight how public communication is woven into the policy development process, which itself may be split into two stages: ‘internal’ and ‘external’ for a LEZ or CC within an integrated transportation package.

Highlights:

• Low Emission Zone (LEZ) and Congestion Charging (CC) policies are usually controversial, and effective public communication is one of the factors contributing to their successful implementation.
• Public communication involves a process of dialogue with different stakeholders and a process to interact with the general public for feedback.
• Successful international experience shows that public communication for LEZ and CC should start as early as possible with a feasibility study and should continue through all stages of scheme design, implementation, operation, and management.
• Public communication should be integrated with the LEZ/CC scheme design so as to allow enough time for scheme changes and for proactive public education.
• Public communication should be integrated with data collection to allow for an informative evaluation process.