The transfer of innovative policies between cities to promote sustainability: case study evidence

This paper describes how cities approach the challenging task of identifying, considering and adopting innovative transport policies. The paper begins by establishing a framework for analysing the process of policy transfer and policy learning, drawing on political science literature. The cities were selected based on their reputation for having adopted innovative policies. The data were collected from project reports and in-depth interviews with 40 professionals comprising planners, consultants and operators in 11 cities across North America and Northern Europe. This paper presents the findings from three key innovations: congestion charging; compact growth and transport planning; and car sharing. Each of these innovations was implemented in several sites, and there was evidence of learning across the sites studied. The case studies present a discussion of each policy alongside indications of the impacts of the policy (positive and negative), and then examine how the different cities approached the task of learning about how to introduce it and the issues they faced in doing so. The paper identifies conditions which appear to support effective learning: the reliance on strong networks of personal and professional contacts, the need to draw lessons from multiple sites, and the importance of financial and institutional support to facilitate the uptake of ‘risky’ or technologically immature innovations.