Skip to main content

World Economic Forum unveils SEAM library

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has built a policy library and gathered modelling tools to help decision-makers implement Shared, Electric and Automated Mobility (SEAM) options. The SEAM framework is a set of sustainable mobility policy guidelines aimed at helping cities alleviate congestion and reduce pollution. Maya Ben Dror, WEF project lead, says decision makers can use the framework to “pick what is projected as impactful and feasible” and “design it to maximise emissions reduction as well as soci
July 31, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has built a policy library and gathered modelling tools to help decision-makers implement Shared, Electric and Automated Mobility (SEAM) options.


The SEAM framework is a set of sustainable mobility policy guidelines aimed at helping cities alleviate congestion and reduce pollution.

Maya Ben Dror, WEF project lead, says decision makers can use the framework to “pick what is projected as impactful and feasible” and “design it to maximise emissions reduction as well as societal benefits”.

“It anticipates that some cities are more advanced in one of these three categories,” he continues. “But it is flexible enough that a city with no mobility policies can save valuable time and leapfrog ahead.”

The SEAM policy library comprises cost lever policies such as tax exemptions, parking fares and central district tolls. It also consists of space lever policies including passenger load and drop-off zones, dedicated lanes, zoning and parking.

Joseph Chow, deputy director, C2Smart University Transportation Center, New York University (NYU) says this study may help guide local governments grappling with “ways to address challenges arising from implementing solutions”.

“For example, cities like Los Angeles now employ mobility data specifications to make data interoperability possible for shared data exchanges,” he continues. “Such efforts may benefit from our research at NYU on privacy control for operator data-sharing, which is covered within the governance framework."

The policy library was developed with representatives of the Center of Competence Urban Mobility of BMW, Ford Greenfields Labs, Transport Practice at the World Bank, University of California, Davis and non-profit organisation ClimateWorks.

UTC

Related Content

  • May 29, 2013
    ITS advancement lays beyond benefit-cost analysis
    Shelley Row, former Director of the US Department of Transportation’s ITS Joint Program Office, gives her views on the way forward for the industry. We, as intelligent transportation system (ITS) proponents and engineers, tend to be overly fixated on benefit-cost data. We want decisions to be made on logical grounds for which benefit-cost calculations are optimal. While benefit-cost data is necessary, it is not always sufficient. We can learn from our history where we see three broad groups of ITS deploymen
  • November 9, 2017
    Mobinet counters weighty cross border concerns
    A Mobinet pilot is combining onboard weighing with V2X comms to streamline vehicle weight enforcement. David Crawford reports. Pan-European, cross-border weigh-in-motion (WIM) for trucks is now a practical possibility, following successful Scandinavian trials within the EU-co-funded Mobinet (Internet of Mobility) programme. New technology is using strain sensors, located on load-bearing components and routinely installed in truck fleet management systems.
  • March 19, 2015
    Car parking and parked cars need not be a technological black hole
    David Crawford mines the potential of joined-up parking. Drivers conventionally see parking as an isolated, often frustrating, action; but collectively their attempts to find a space impact hugely on traffic flows. But new analyses of parking events look set to deliver real benefits to motorists and cities alike. Initiatives getting under way around the world are highlighting the advantages of connecting up parking events and – eventually - parked cars. The hoped-for results include not only enhanced urban
  • November 17, 2014
    Air quality tops transportation agendas
    Colin Sowman catches up on some of the latest research around outdoor pollution and looks at options available to authorities in areas of poor air quality. Iair quality hasn’t already reached the top of the agenda in transportation department meetings in your area, it probably soon will with national, trans-national and even global bodies calling for authorities to reduce pollution levels.