ABSTRACT
Cities all over the world face problems with lorry traffic. Due to climate change, shortage of resources and the demand for cities worth living in, politicians and planning authorities in Germany have for years been dealing with these urban compatible traffic configurations. Indeed, the regulatory framework for the transport sector is supposed to enhance environmentally sustainable and urban compatible modes of transport. In reality, not many restrictive measures have been realized for any group of stakeholders. Exceptions in the last ten years have been the introduction of the autobahn toll for heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and environmental zoning. With these new environmental regulations and measures at the European Union (EU) and the national levels, it is hoped that freight flows will be optimized and the impact of traffic will be reduced especially in urban areas. This chapter examines the implementation of these two policies in Germany using a planning analysis framework in order to identify the substantive outcome on freight flows and liveability of these policies and to derive lessons for other places. Comparing the two policies is useful because they contrast the urban implications of an industry-wide pricing mechanism with an area-based, regulatory approach. They will be analysed using the instruments proposed by the planning analysis framework (Flämig 2004).
