Churchman, P., Dekker, T. orcid.org/0000-0003-2313-8419 and Pangbourne, K. (2025) Decision pathways for road freight decarbonization. Transportation Research Part D Transport and Environment, 145. 104831. ISSN 1361-9209
Abstract
The road freight system is complex, with many system dependencies. These dependencies mean that individual actors are often unable to take radical decarbonization action alone, and system-level decisions are required. Decision dependencies mean decision pathways are needed specifying key decisions and decision sequencing. Five decision pathway workshops were held with mixed groups of industry actors, policymakers and experts. Decarbonization barriers, enablers and decisions were identified and dependencies between these specified. A new software tool “Pathplotter” was used to facilitate pathway definition and analysis, and workshop commentary was qualitatively analyzed using NVivo. It was found that it is possible for mixed actor groups to define decision pathways, and requirements to operationalize this approach are identified. While techno-economic factors remain important, most barriers, enablers and required decisions are found to be socio-technical, political or related to decision governance. This reinforces the need for more research into these understudied transition aspects.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | Pathways, Systems Thinking, Governance, Transition Management, Critical Realism, Road Freight Decarbonization |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Transport Studies (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jun 2025 13:52 |
Last Modified: | 04 Jun 2025 13:52 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.trd.2025.104831 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:227396 |