Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023

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Sustainable Cities and Society

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scs

Urban experiments with public transport for low carbon mobility

transitions in cities: A systematic literature review (1990–2020)
Ramanditya Wimbardana Wimbadi a, *, Riyanti Djalante a, Akihisa Mori b
a
United Nations University - Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), Tokyo, Japan
b
School of Global Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The development of public transport in cities can facilitate multiple ways under the Avoid-Shift-Improve (ASI)
Urban experiment framework in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from passenger mobility. Nevertheless, ensuring their
Public transport integration and direction for moving toward low carbon mobility transitions is often challenging in practice.
CO2 emission
Urban experimentation has emerged as a governance model to foster innovations for climate change mitigation
Climate change
Low carbon mobility
in cities while articulating a sustainable future. This paper aims to review how urban public transport experi­
Transition ments ensure the selection and consolidation of ASI measures to support low carbon mobility transitions. Our
analysis is based on a systematic review of 41 documents gathered from peer-reviewed and grey literature da­
tabases. We find that experimentation is a critical platform for introducing novel ASI-public transport measures
and exploring potential pathways toward the transitions through participative backcasting approaches. In our
database, the experiments generally contribute to the rollout of LEV technologies and BRT systems, followed by
the development of other ASI measures. Some of the experiments establish climate change targets to support low
carbon mobility. Our review demonstrates that the experiments hold a pivotal role in developing niches for ASI-
based measures and stimulating policy processes for the long-term transitions.

1. Introduction
The Paris Agreement sets out targets to hold the global average
temperature rise to well below 2 ◦ C above the pre-industrial levels and
pursue more ambitious efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 ◦ C
above the pre-industrial levels (UNFCCC, 2015). Scholars argue that
rapid and deep decarbonization in the energy system is indispensable
before the mid-century to achieve the targets (Gambhir, Rogelj, Luderer,
Few, & Napp, 2019; Sachs, Schmidt-Traub, & Williams, 2016). The
process requires significant transformations within the system,
including its infrastructure, institutions, and user practices. Existing
carbon-intensive practices in the system must be changed dramatically
with technological innovations and behavioral changes so it can reduce
CO2 emissions significantly.
As an end-use energy sector, the transport sector faces complex
challenges to decouple CO2 emissions from mobility, and cities signifi­
cantly influence the emission problems. The sector dependency on fossil
fuels has led the trend of motorized automobility with internal
combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to grow over the past century. It has
stimulated road infrastructure expansion and low-density urban forms
that spurs private vehicle ownership and CO2 from mobility (Seto et al.,
2014). Meanwhile, many cities still have low accessibility to public
transport services, such as in Asia and North America (Chen & Kauppila,
2017; Darido, Torres-Montoya, & Mehndiratta, 2014). The OECD/ITF
(2017) estimated that cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants
contributed to 20 % of the transport sector’s total CO2 emissions from
passenger mobility only in 2014. Researchers indicate that population
growth and economic activity agglomeration will increase mobility
demand and CO2 emissions in cities gradually (Madlener & Sunak, 2011;
Sadorsky, 2014; Yazdi & Dariani, 2019).
Urban transport has to shift its socio-technical system1 geared to­
ward low carbon mobility that passenger and goods movement produce
lower CO2 emissions from the current level. This process entails a long-
term transition process with different low carbon transport measures
and institutional transformation (Geels, 2018; Givoni, 2013). Scholars
and transport experts argue that rolling out energy-efficient transport

* Corresponding author at: UNU Headquarter, 5-53-70, Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-8925, Japan.
E-mail address: ramanditya@student.unu.edu (R.W. Wimbadi).
1
Socio-technical systems determine how the society works (e.g., transport and housing). They are shaped by interconnected elements, including technological
artifacts, knowledge, user practices and markets, regulation, cultural meaning, infrastructure, and supply networks (Geels, 2005; Turnheim et al., 2015)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.103023
Received 30 July 2020; Received in revised form 11 May 2021; Accepted 12 May 2021
Available online 15 May 2021
2210-6707/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
modes and increasing public transport modal share will be the keys to
keep the temperature rise below 2 ◦ C (Agora Verkehrswende, GIZ, &
WEF, 2020; Gambhir et al., 2019). Synergies among those measures are
the key to generate full decarbonization potential (Givoni & Banister,
2013; Lah, 2017). Moreover, the selected solutions must minimize
rebound effects and other adverse effects (Bongardt et al., 2013). For
instance, the widespread rollout of private electric vehicles can increase
CO2 emission and air pollutants from electricity generation, vehicle
ownership, and traffic congestion in cities (Eccarius & Lu, 2020;
Velasquez & Eisenbeiss, 2015). Public transport can play a significant
role in facilitating modal shift, trip efficiency, and low-emission vehicle
technology utilization at the same time (Hickman, Fremer, Breithhaupt,
& Saxena, 2011). In this journal and elsewhere, public transport has
been acknowledged for its contribution to GHG mitigation and
co-benefit potentials, such as less traffic congestion and air quality
improvement (Dillman et al., 2021; Jain & Tiwari, 2016; Kwan &
Hashim, 2016). Thus, it is essential to ensure that urban public transport
measures are created, knitted, and directed toward the transitions.
Amidst the urgent need to pursue net-zero carbon emission, urban
experiments have been observed in different parts of the world as an
emerging governance model to establish foundations for low carbon
transitions. They can help stakeholders test and adopt novel measures or
policies in real-world settings (Bulkeley & Castán Broto, 2013; Kivimaa,
Hildén, Huitema, Jordan, & Newig, 2017; van der Heijden, 2016). The
activities facilitate actors learning about novel measures and building
networks to challenge the status quo and envision desired sustainable
pathways. Previous studies identified that public transport is one of the
climate change mitigation solutions developed through urban experi­
ments (Bulkeley & Castán Broto, 2013; Sethi, Felix, Lamb, & Minx,
2020). However, they do not elaborate specifically on what kind of
public transport measures are considered and tested during the experi­
ments. More importantly, little is known about how those measures are
integrated through the experiments to optimize emission reduction.
On the other hand, transport scholars and practitioners generally use
the ‘Avoid-Shift-Improve’ (ASI) approach as the three basic ways to
minimize adverse transport effects. The ASI approach is widely adopted
in sustainable transport projects that usually have multiple objectives (e.
g., GHG reduction, air pollution abatement, and traffic congestion
reduction) (Bakker, Zuidgeest, De Coninck, & Huizenga, 2014; Lah,
2015; Nakamura & Hayashi, 2013). However, local stakeholders put
little attention on incorporating climate change targets in its applica­
tion. Moreover, they usually favor the ‘Improve’ to get implemented first
and followed by the other two later. As a result, the ASI approach
application in practice tends to induce incremental changes rather than
transformational ones in addressing long-term climate targets (Bakker
et al., 2014).
Scholars call for a rigorous transition-oriented ASI framework for
low carbon mobility (Bakker et al., 2014; Bongardt et al., 2013). Givoni
(2013) offers a framework that explains how different low carbon
mobility pathways and their impacts on GHG mitigation, mobility pat­
terns, and economic growth could occur when stakeholders favor one
particular approach over the others under the ASI framework. Mean­
while, other researchers argue that ASI measures must be done in an
integrated manner to optimize climate change mitigation and generate
co-benefit potentials simultaneously (Lah, 2017; Nakamura & Hayashi,
2013). However, there is limited understanding of how ASI-based
measures are selected and assembled for low carbon mobility transi­
tions. Given the potentials of urban experiments to lay the foundation
for a transition, we recognize that there is still limited understanding of
whether and how they can facilitate these needs. Some organizations
adopt experimental approaches in their low carbon transport projects.
Nonetheless, their reports are limited to the experience of a particular
region where they conduct the projects, such as CIVITAS initiatives in
European cities (Boschetti, Maurizi, & Cré, 2014) and IGES (Institute for
Global Environmental Strategies) low carbon projects in Asian cities
(Junko et al., 2018). A comprehensive review of existing empirical
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Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
evidence needs to be done to explore whether and how urban experi­
mentation could take those roles.
Taking public transport as the main focus of this paper, we aim to
review how previous urban experiments with public transport could
facilitate the selection and consolidation of ASI-based measures for low
carbon mobility transitions. This review attempts to connect the
conceptualization of urban experimentation for climate change (Castan
Broto & Bulkeley, 2013; Kivimaa et al., 2017) and the ASI framework
(Bongardt et al., 2013; Givoni, 2013). The review will also be important
to affirm the extent to which experimentation is related to other activ­
ities that could promote the transitions, such as urban transport poli­
cymaking or city planning.
This paper is structured as follows. Following the introduction, the
second section outlines the theoretical rationale for connecting the
concept of experimentation in sustainability transition studies and the
ASI approach for low carbon mobility. We explain the methodology
applied to conduct the review in the third section. The fourth section
presents the results, followed by the fifth section to discuss the findings
and their implication for promoting urban public transport for the
transitions. The sixth section concludes the reviews and provides future
research directions.
2. Theoretical background
2.1. Urban experimentation for sustainability transitions
Experimentation is a fundamental way to enable sustainability
transitions by introducing and developing novel solutions through
small-scale initiatives (e.g., field demonstrations, pilot projects, and
grassroots initiatives). It aims to initiate the transformation of existing
physical structures (e.g., infrastructure and technologies), institutional
structures (e.g., organizations and power structures), economic struc­
tures (e.g., market), culture (e.g., shared future images), and practices
(e.g., daily routines of users) (van den Bosch & Rotmans, 2008). It is a
governance model that engages stakeholders in articulating expecta­
tions, building social networks/coalitions, and co-learning about po­
tential novelties (Geels, Sovacool, Schwanen, & Sorrell, 2017; Sengers,
Turnheim, & Berkhout, 2020). They can come from diverse groups of
actors, such as government institutions, civil society organizations,
universities, and entrepreneurs, with different interests and policy be­
liefs. Experimentation for sustainability transitions establishes novelties
in real-world settings so they can obtain feedback from the users, learn
how new technologies work, and exercise possible different ways to use
novelties for addressing sustainability problems (Bulkeley et al., 2019;
Evans & Karvonen, 2014; Raven, Schot, & Berkhout, 2012).
The concept of experimentation for sustainability transitions has
been evolving over the past decade. The early experimentation studies
lack spatial consideration. Experimentation was perceived as a
nationally-driven process in which actors face similar challenges from
place to place within a country’s boundaries and deploy similar in­
novations as the solutions (Bridge, Bouzarovski, Bradshaw, & Eyre,
2013; Hansen & Coenen, 2015; Raven et al., 2012). Urban geography
scholars have conducted empirical studies to examine the significance of
urban setting as an arena for experimentation to facilitate transitions
(Bulkeley & Castán Broto, 2013; Hodson & Marvin, 2010; Peng & Bai,
2018). Castan Broto and Bulkeley (2013) coin the notion of “urban
climate change experiments” that is envisioned by or on behalf of an
(imagined) urban community to test technical and social interventions
for climate change mitigation and adaptation. Others research the
emergence of urban living labs in Europe (von Wirth, Fuenfschilling,
Frantzeskaki, & Coenen, 2019; Voytenko, McCormick, Evans, &
Schliwa, 2016). Urban transition studies highlight the importance of
place specificity (e.g., geographical conditions, proximity to resources,
and local regulations) in shaping experimentation outputs and outcomes
(Hansen & Coenen, 2015; Hodson & Marvin, 2012). Bulkeley and Castán
Broto (2013) identify urban experimentation for climate change
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
Fig. 1. Transition-Oriented ASI Framework for Low Carbon Mobility.
characteristics across different sectors to understand cities as spaces for
experimentation, including 1) when and where the experiments occur,
2) which actors are involved, and 3) how the experiments seek to
intervene in socio-technical systems.
Experiments can create microcosms for a transition in different ways.
The outputs and outcomes of experimentation vary, depending on how
they are designed in the first place. Kivimaa et al. (2017) classify ex­
periments based on their objectives. First, a niche creation experiment
aims to promote the adoption of a specific technology or service and
foster other novelties to grow around it. Secondly, a market creation
experiment alters market preferences by providing incentives and
setting regulations to support sustainable practices to emerge. Thirdly, a
spatial development experiment is centered on applying planning the­
ories and principles to alter the built environment for sustainability
benefits. Lastly, there are experiments for societal problem solving and
changes that use participatory scenario buildings to explore potential
measures and envision a sustainable future. Other researchers name this
approach as the future design (Saijo, 2020; Uwasu, Kishita, Hara, &
Nomaguchi, 2020).
Accordingly, those objectives will determine tangible (e.g., infra­
structure) and intangible changes (e.g., knowledge of “how-to” and new
shared vision) after experimentation is conducted. Kivimaa et al. (2017)
discover immediate changes after climate change experiments across the
energy and built environment sectors. They categorize them into (1)
changed discourses; (2) new technology; (3) built environment change;
(4) policy and institutional change; (5) new business practices; (6) new
market or market change, or (7) new consumer practices. Against this
theoretical backdrop, we explore in the following sub-section how the
conceptualization of these experimentation contributions could be
extended further to understand their potential ways to build low carbon
mobility transition pathways.
2.2. Connecting the ASI approach and low carbon mobility transitions
through experimentation
The ASI approach is a well-recognized concept among those advo­
cating sustainable transport practices for framing transport policies and
measures to reduce GHG emissions and achieve other sustainable
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Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
transport objectives, such as traffic congestion and air pollution (Bon­
gardt et al., 2013; Nakamura & Hayashi, 2013). In the urban setting,
three main factors influence GHG emission from mobility, including
technology (carbon intensity of fuels and energy intensity of vehicle
types), behavior (modal structure of mobility and volume of mobility),
and urban forms (Makido, Dhakal, & Yamagata, 2012; Waisman, Gui­
varch, & Lecocq, 2013). The ‘avoid’ strategies curb motorized mobility
by controlling built-environment expansion, promoting compact urban
form, and encouraging teleworking. The ‘shift’ strategies aim to promote
energy efficiency by increasing public transport ridership, such as
building mass-transit systems, road pricing, and traffic control regula­
tions. The ‘improve’ strategies advance transport-related technologies to
reduce fuel carbon intensity (e.g., biofuel utilization) and improve
vehicle energy efficiency (e.g., electric vehicles2).
Urban public transport could play a central role in facilitating a
holistic approach to reduce CO2 emissions. One that can be considered is
the uptake of energy-efficient transport modes or Low Emission Vehicles
(LEVs) for public transport fleets. It can bring significant urban in­
frastructures and business model changes because their operation needs
to fulfill particular technical performance standards and economic
feasibility. More importantly, it must be combined with other measures
that encourage people to shift to public transport, such as fuel subsidy
removal and service integration. The expansion of public transport
accessibility can provide “transit leverage effects” such as reducing
private automobility around transit stops and stations (Miller, de Barros,
Kattan, & Wirasinghe, 2016; Pollack, Gartsman, Reardon, & Hari,
2015). For example, Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) zones could
reduce GHG emissions by limiting motorized movement and improving
walkability around a train station (Cervero & Dai, 2014). Hence, those
ASI measures shall be designed in an integrated manner to maximize
potential outcomes in reducing CO2 and achieving other benefits (Lah,
2017).
2
It is worth noting that the charging of Battery-Powered Electric Vehicles
(BEVs) could lead to the increase of energy generated from coal-powered sta­
tions disproportionately, such as in the United States (Tamayao, Michalek,
Hendrickson, & Azevedo, 2015).
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
Fig. 2. PRISMA flowchart describing the steps in selecting the literature.
Low carbon mobility transitions occur when those measures are
framed and directed to steer the socio-technical system that runs urban
transport to a specific pathway. The implementation will generate ef­
fects that may stimulate or even hamper economic growth, CO2 emission
reduction, and mobility in different degrees. Built upon the existing
transition frameworks that explain the processes (European Environ­
ment Agency, 2016; Geels et al., 2017; Givoni, 2013), we propose an
analytical framework that describes how experimentation selects and
assembles ASI measures for driving different low carbon mobility tran­
sition pathways (Fig. 1). It illustrates the position of experiments among
the constellation of niches, socio-technical regime, and socio-technical
landscape3 . Regime and niche actors are involved in testing and
adopting novel measures in an urban experiment to cut CO2 emissions.
The experimentation also helps them determine possible transition
pathways, for instance, with participatory scenario building (Kivimaa
et al., 2017). Their joint vision and strategies can be reflected in existing
plans (e.g., action plans or roadmaps) or a new one developed during an
experiment.
Each pathway has different dominant transport measures that will
influence the patterns of mobility and economic growth. The Business as
Usual (BaU) pathway aims at keeping personal motorized mobility
dominant to foster the fossil fuel-based economy. Meanwhile, Pathway
A promotes the rollout of energy-efficient vehicles and non-fossil fuel
vehicles, such as electric cars, on a large scale. In this pathway, personal
vehicle ridership still outweighs public transport modal share. Pathway
B focuses on increasing travel efficiency with a significant shift to public
transport and active transport (e.g., walking and cycling) and limiting
3
Socio-technical systems are run by regimes or incumbent actors that set
rules and institutions to maintain established practices. Meanwhile, a mo­
mentum for a transition can be also induced from niches, “protected and less
stable spaces” for new actors or agencies to carry out symbiotic and innovative
activities. Socio-technical landscape indicates exogenous pressures or trends
that disrupt the systems and provide opportunities for niche actors to emerge (e.
g., oil prices, demographic growth) (Geels & Schot, 2007; Rosenbloom, Berton,
& Meadowcroft, 2016).
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Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
private car ownership growth. Pathway C results in an economic growth
model less dependent on transport activities, including optimizing
telework and spatial arrangement, that mobility to reach economic ac­
tivities is minimized.
The deployment of novel technologies and policy interventions
during and after the experiments could lead to immediate changes
(Kivimaa et al., 2017). A socio-technical system will respond to these,
known as feedback effects (Jordan & Matt, 2014; Mori, 2018). Tech­
nological feedback effects cause regime actors to reframe their political
choices. They might change their norms, policies, regulations, and
organizational arrangements to support the diffusion processes, either
by deepening, broadening, or scaling up the selected results (van den
Bosch & Rotmans, 2008). These will be followed up with the redistri­
bution of resources and incentives to stimulate niches to grow, espe­
cially with building capacities for policy implementation and mobilizing
political support for transformational changes. Thus, during experi­
mentation, agencies or actors build coalitions to either support or
oppose innovations (Geels, 2014).
This section recognizes that experimentation could play a pivotal
role in setting up and consolidating what is needed to embark toward
low carbon mobility transitions. To further support this argument, we
raise the question of whether and how the previous urban public
transport experiments ensure the selection and consolidation of ASI
measures to support the transitions. We break down our review aim into
four objectives as follows: (1) to identify the characteristics of urban
public transport experiments that aim to mitigate CO2 emission; (2) to
identify what kind of outputs resulted and consolidated during the ex­
periments; (3) to identify the outcomes of the experimented public
transport measures based on the ASI approach; and (4) to reflect the
ways of urban public transport experiments ensure the selection and
consolidation of ASI-based measures for the transitions.
3. Methodology
We employed a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), a methodology
to appraise and synthesize the state of knowledge from a large body of
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
publications based on defined questions with a transparent protocol
(Booth, Sutton, & Papaioannou, 2016). It can help minimize bias and
errors in doing a review, and others could replicate the procedures to
ensure the validity of the results. SLR is commonly used in health science
literature to provide reliable evidence for healthcare interventions and
policy (Liberati et al., 2009). More recently, it has been increasingly
used in other fields, such as transportation (Hansson, Pettersson,
Svensson, & Wretstrand, 2019), tourism (Yang, Khoo-Lattimore, &
Arcodia, 2017), disaster risk reduction (Djalante, 2018). Researchers
who study climate change issues have applied the methodology for
analyzing the state of the art of climate change impacts (Cronin,
Anandarajah, & Dessens, 2018; Hunt & Watkiss, 2010), adaptation
(Berrang-Ford, Pearce, & Ford, 2015; Shaffril, Krauss, & Samsuddin,
2018), and mitigation (Gouldson, Sudmant, Khreis, & Papargyropoulou,
2018; Wimbadi & Djalante, 2020). We followed the PRISMA (Preferred
Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) guideline in
the process of searching, identifying, screening, and analyzing literature
(Liberati et al., 2009).
3.1. Search and identification
In this review, we included both peer-reviewed and grey literature
(Fig. 2). We selected Scopus to gather peer-reviewed research publica­
tions. It is the most extensive scientific literature database covering
studies from engineering and social science that are more relevant to
urban public transport experiments (Mongeon & Paul-Hus, 2016).
Nonetheless, selecting only peer-reviewed database as the main source
would increase the risk of language bias in the result (Stern & Kleijnen,
2020). Therefore, we incorporated grey literature from the databases
published by the organizations working in sustainable transport or low
carbon transport issues. The databases contain publications that mainly
capture their direct experience of managing urban transport projects, so,
in that way, we can obtain broader relevant cases that fit with the ob­
jectives of this review. We acknowledge that some organizations focus
on a specific region only (e.g., CIVITAS in Europe). Thus, to avoid
geographic bias in the results and gain more perspectives from different
regions, we chose grey literature databases from four organizations
working in sustainable transport in different regions, including:
• C40 (a transnational municipal network for climate change actions),
a transnational municipal network that connects 97 large cities
worldwide to take action against climate change. It has a knowledge
hub that gathers the experience of its city members in tackling the
issue.
• GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), a
German development agency that promotes the ASI framework in
their sustainable transport projects. The organization has a database
containing its works in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
• ICCT (International Council on Clean Transportation), a non-profit
organization that has an objective to provide unbiased transport
research. It has a database covering its research works in Asia,
Europe, North America, and Latin America.
• World Bank that assists developing countries in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America improve urban transport infrastructures. The World
Bank also established the Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust
Fund in 1991 that finances projects to solve environmental issues,
including GHG emissions from the transport sector.
The peer-reviewed literature search was conducted on 15 March
2020. We set inclusion and exclusion criteria to select the potential
publications that fit our review queries. Firstly, we included keywords
related to “public transport” (e.g., “mass transport” or “mass transit”),
climate change (e.g., “emission” and urban (e.g.,” city”) (see Appendix A
for the list of keywords). This review focuses on only two primary public
road transport, including bus and rail-based transit. Secondly, we chose
those published between 1990 and 2020 because the global movement
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Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
for climate change mitigation was started around the late 1980s (Bod­
ansky, 2001). Thirdly, we refined the search based on document types,
including journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, and books,
because such publication types often provide findings of case studies.
Lastly, we selected English-written documents only, and we omitted
those from irrelevant subjects, such as mathematics and agriculture. The
data collection in Scopus alone resulted in 563 documents.
Meanwhile, we gathered the grey literature between 5th and 20th
November 2020. We applied similar procedures for the grey literature
databases. However, we adjusted the details due to different search
settings in each database (see the Appendix A). Given a wide range of
document types in grey literature, we collected only documents that
capture in-depth information that tells the organizations’ experience
and involvement in the experiments, including project reports, books,
chapters, working papers, consultancy reports, and other similar docu­
ments in the search. In total, we collected 361 grey publications. The
specific steps and keywords used in this stage are elaborated in the
Appendix A.
3.2. Document screening and eligibility
The retrieved documents were compiled and screened to exclude
those not eligible for the analysis. We set the inclusion criteria. First, they
must provide information about experimentation in a specific city or
more that aims purposely or strategically to reduce CO2 emission by
seeking new forms of learning and experience. The experiments have
been done to test and adopt measures to promote public transport roles
to cut CO2 emission and conduct by or on behalf of an (imagined) urban
community. We adopt these criteria on urban experiments for climate
change from Castan Broto and Bulkeley (2013). Second, we carefully
included the publication records that contain case studies on local public
transport within urban areas. It serves passenger mobility between
different parts of the conurbation areas regardless of their administra­
tive boundaries, such as daily commuting from adjacent suburbs
(Hansson et al., 2019). Thus, we excluded publications that describe
experimented public transport measures for mobility between urban and
rural areas. Third, we considered the documents that review, compile,
and cite information from primary sources because we seek direct
evaluation or observation from the researchers or the organizations. We
discarded the records that do not fall under those criteria.
Using those criteria, we screened the retrieved documents to check
their eligibility for the analysis. First, we read their title and abstract,
whether they entirely reflect the information that we search based on
the criteria. This step resulted in 118 records that match the inclusion
criteria. Accordingly, we carefully re-read the abstract/executive sum­
mary of the selected records and then screened their introduction and
methodology (if any for the grey publications). From that final step, we
obtained 41 documents for the analysis. These comprise 19 peer-
reviewed papers and 22 grey publications.
3.3. Data analysis
We employed content analysis to analyze the information given in
the selected peer-reviewed publications. The analysis procedure in­
cludes categorizing and creating generalizations and information pat­
terns by interpreting and coding textual contents (Erlingsson &
Brysiewicz, 2017). The texts that contain information related to research
questions were shortened into meaning units, then coded, and grouped
into categories. The categorization was based on codes that have similar
patterns of meanings. The final step created themes based on the cate­
gories. We categorized the data into four main themes to answer the
research questions of this review. Then, we developed a Comparative
Criteria Table (CCT) based on the categories and themes (Table 1).
Firstly, we identified the characteristics of the observed experiments
in our database by analyzing their geographic locations, establishment
and completion year, and types. The types were determined based on
R.W. Wimbadi et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023

Table 1 Table 2
Comparative Criteria Table. Number of Observed Cities in the Analysis.
Research Objectives Criteria of Description Number of observed cities where urban public
comparison / transport experiments were conducted
Identified themes Document Sources
Africa Asia Europe South North
The city and the country America America
Geographic
where the experiment is
locations Scopus 0 3 19 0 10
conducted
C40 0 1 0 3 1
The city population where
Population GIZ 0 1 1 0 0
the experiment is conducted
Objective: 1: To identify ICCT 0 0 0 2 0
The year when the
the characteristics of Experiment year World Bank 1 19 0 4 3
experiment is conducted
urban public transport Number of cities that have 0 0 1 1 0
The category is determined
experiments that aim to more than one document
on the experiment objectives
mitigate CO2 emission explaining the same
(i.e., niche creation, market
experiment
Experiment types creation, societal problem
Total (n ¼ 64 cities) 1 24 18 8 13
solving and change, and
spatial development) as
ways to cut CO2
The new types of vehicle nodes connected via edges. We set the identified measures as the
technology that have been network nodes, and the relations among them in an experiment were the
Vehicle
technologies
introduced in the edges. We gave the value “1” if they are mentioned that they were tested
experiment (e.g., electric or developed in the same experiment. The matrix was imported into the
buses and hydrogen buses)
The infrastructures that have
NODEXL software to construct the visualization. We also used the de­
been placed to support the gree of centrality4 to reflect which measures are mostly considered
Supporting
operation of public transport across different experiments.
infrastructures
services (e.g., dedicated bus Thirdly, we grouped the outputs into three outcomes based on the
lane or bus stops)
ASI approach to identify their ways in reducing the emission. Since not
The new model of services
Objective 2: To identify and business practices that all of the retrieved documents state them explicitly, we classified some
Services and
what kind of outputs have been applied for of them into which Bongardt et al. (2013) suggest for categorizing
business practices
resulted and consolidated optimizing public transport ASI-based public transport measures. Then, we counted the total num­
during the experiments ridership ber of measures for each ASI outcome to identify which one has been
The novel principles of
urban transport practices or
considered most for promoting low carbon mobility and could provide
Urban transport different outcomes.
management that are
policies
formulated or tested by the
city stakeholders 4. Findings
A new city development
Development
vision for low carbon-related
discourses
pathways Our database contains urban public transport experiments from 64
A way to promote citizen or cities located in five regions (Table 2). Most of the peer-reviewed papers
Citizen practices consumer behaviors to cut include case studies from Europe and North America, while the grey
CO2 literature covers more examples from developing countries in the Global
To reduce traffic volume by
Avoid limiting the needs for
South. Gonçalves, Portugal, and Farias (2008) is the earliest published
Objective 3: To identify the peer-reviewed paper in this analysis. They describe the trial of hydrogen
mobility
outcomes of the
To increase the ridership of bus fleets in Porto (Portugal) under the CUTE (Clean Urban Transport
experimented public Shift
public transport for Europe) commenced by the European Union (EU) in 2004 and
transport measures based
To improve energy
on the ASI approach another in Berlin (Germany) under the HyFLEET: CUTE started in 2006.
Improve efficiency through vehicle
technology Meanwhile, the earliest published grey literature is Mexico - Introduc­
tion of Climate Friendly Measures in Transport Project (English) (2009).
It outlines the World Bank’s project launched in Mexico City in 2003,
their primary approach to achieving targets for CO2 emission reduction. and one of its outputs is an emission testing lab for the city public
It is also worth recognizing the city population to estimate the transport transport. Of 22 grey publications, twelve of them were from the World
demand that the public transport service needs to cover. However, not Bank’s reports that describe its sustainable transport projects in
all the authors provide population data of the cities where the identified Argentina, China, Chile, India, Mexico, Nigeria, and Vietnam.
experiments were conducted. Therefore, we gathered the data from
https://www.citypopulation.de/ that compiles official population fig­ 4.1. The characteristics of urban public transport experiments
ures in cities worldwide based on census data. We selected the data that
represents the population living within the administrative boundaries of Our database indicates that the trend of urban public transport ex­
the cities. We classified the cities into four city classes based on their periments for climate change emerged about two decades ago5 (Fig. 3).
demographic sizes. An overview table of the identified experiments in The earliest reported experiment was held in Canada when its federal
each city is in the annex of this review. government initiated an urban sustainable transport program in eight
Secondly, we identified public transport measures stated in the urban areas in 2001, following up its GHG emission commitment under
documents and arranged them into the experiment output categories
adopted from Kivimaa et al. (2017). Accordingly, we used discourse
network analysis (DNA) to examine the interrelationship between nov­ 4
Degree centrality is a simple count of the total number of edges linked to a
elties introduced in the experiments. DNA combines approaches in node. It can be considered to measure popularity of social actors or ideas in a
content analysis and social network analysis to provide insights network (Hansen, Shneiderman, & Smith, 2011).
regarding a subject discourse in written sources (Leifeld, 2016). A 5
We cannot identify when four experiments in Ottawa, Winnipeg (CAN),
network in this analysis consists of arguments (or the “concept”) as Arnhem, and Breda (NLD) were commenced because the documents do not
indicate any date.

6
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
Fig. 3. The number of urban public transport experiments commenced between 2001 and 2020.
Fig. 4. The geographic distribution of the observed cities.
the Kyoto Protocol (MacIsaac, 2009). Seven of them introduced a mix of
novel public transport-related measures. The most recent experiment
recorded in the retrieved literature is a battery-electric bus pilot pro­
gram in Jakarta (Indonesia) (C40 Cities Finance Facility, 2020). Four
cities have done more than one experiment between 2001 and 2020,
including Santiago (Chile), Mexico City (Mexico), Amsterdam (the
Netherlands), and Winnipeg (Canada). Twenty-seven cities commenced
their experiments in the 2000s, while thirty-seven cities launched their
experiments within the last decade.
Fig. 4 shows the geographic distribution of cities that have conducted
urban public transport experiments. Most of these experiments are
concentrated in the European Union (EU) country members. On the
7
Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
national scale, our database contains mainly the experience of cities in
China. By 2020, the World Bank transport projects had initiated public
transport experiments for cutting the emission in 13 cities in China.
However, our findings indicate that fewer experiments are observed in
cities in emerging economies, such as India (4), Mexico (3), Brazil (2),
and Indonesia (1).
Then, we compare the demographic characteristics of those identi­
fied cities6. Fig. 5 depicts that most of the reported experiments in
developed countries occur in small cities, especially those in the EU and
Canada. Meanwhile, in developing countries, the experiments have been
held in cities with larger demographic sizes (one million people and
more). Four megacities that have carried out the experiments are also
6
The city size classification is based on UN/DESA (2019). Due to the latest
census data availability, we include different years for Lagos (2006), Hanoi,
Minsk (2009), all cities in China (except Hong Kong), Jakarta, Bogota and
Medellin (2010). The population of Kista (SWE) is taken from the publication
because it is not recorded in the selected database. We categorized Naya Raipur
in India as a small-sized city because it is a new town currently being developed
by the government and it is not yet recorded in the database.
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
Fig. 5. The demographic characteristics of the observed cities by population size in 2011.
located in developing countries, including Sao Paulo (Brazil), Beijing,
Shenzhen (China), and Istanbul (Turkey).
We analyzed the objectives of these 68 experiments to achieve the
overarching targets for CO2 emission reduction. Most of the experiments
are intended to shift to sustainable transport systems with niche creation
(Fig. 6). Of the 30 experiments with this objective, 21 are located in
cities in developing countries. These experiments have advocated
technological measures related to public transport, such as World Bank
projects on sustainable transport in China (China - GEF World Bank
Urban Transport Partnership Program Project (English) (2015) and
India (India - Sustainable Urban Transport Project (English) (2019). In
such experiments, other non-public transport measures (e.g., bikeway
network development) were also introduced and tested to attain broader
sustainable transport outcomes (e.g., air pollution abatement). The
second majority of niche creation experiments promote new transport
modes with alternative fuels to cut the emission. While most of them
were done in European cities, some developing country cities have
conducted this kind of experiment more recently, including Manila (GIZ
8
Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
& DOTr of the Philippines, 2016; GIZ, 2019), Mexico City (C40 Cities
Finance Facility, 2019), and Medellin (ICCT & C40, 2019, 2020). In our
database, we also discover urban public transport experiments designed
to explore future scenarios for low carbon mobility, create a new market,
and introduce a new spatial development approach. However, only a
few cities have adopted these kinds of experimentation, such as a pilot
cap-and-trade project for buses and taxis in Shenzhen (Cai et al., 2015;
Jiang, Ye, Ma, & Miao, 2016), and a TOD pilot project in Dongguan
(China - GEF World Bank Urban Transport Partnership Program Project
(English) (2015)).
4.2. The urban public transport experiment outputs
4.2.1. Envisioning and planning for low carbon mobility transitions
Here, we discover that only some experiments are reported to facil­
itate the creation of some targets, roadmaps, or relevant plans or the
implementation of existing ones to initiate low carbon mobility transi­
tions (Fig. 7). Nine experiments facilitated the planning process or
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
Fig. 6. Type and objectives of the experiments.
Fig. 7. Envisioning and planning for low carbon mobility transitions in the observed experiments.
incorporated the agenda into existing ones to support the transitions.
Future design experiments in Kista, Breda, and Potsdam focus on
building scenarios and plans through participatory backcasting experi­
ments (Bos & Temme, 2014; Robèrt, 2017; Schmale, Von Schneide­
messer, & Dörrie, 2015). Three cities in Argentina included emission
reduction targets into their existing integrated urban mobility plans
through participatory planning (Argentina - GEF Sustainable Transport
and Air Quality Program Project (English) (2015)). Meanwhile, Mexico
City, Monterrey, and Tijuana in Mexico developed a similar plan from
scratch within their project time frame (Mexico - Introduction of Climate
Friendly Measures in Transport Project (English) (2009); Mexico - Urban
Transport Transformation Project (English) (2019)). On the other hand,
twenty experiments consider predefined targets or existing plans to
reduce CO2 or GHG emissions. For example, Jaworzno and Krakow
(Poland) conducted the experiments as part of their efforts in realizing
their city development plan to pursue a low carbon city vision with
energy-efficient public transport fleets (Taczanowski, Kołoś, Gwosdz,
Domański, & Guzik, 2018).
4.2.2. Types of experimentation outputs
We find 25 types of measures tested and adopted across all of the
identified experiments. In keeping with the types of experimentation
outputs suggested by Kivimaa et al. (2017), we categorize those
9
Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
measures into five groups: 1) alternative fuel vehicles; 2) infrastructure
and land-use change; 3) service and business practices; 4) urban trans­
port policy, and 5) citizen practices (Table 3).
The majority involves the adoption of LEVs (59 experiments). Some
of them experimented with more than one LEV type. In our database, the
earliest electric bus pilot projects were commenced in Coimbra
(Portugal) and Montreal (Canada) around the mid-2000s (Gonçalves,
Portugal, & Farias, 2008; Mohamed, Ferguson, & Kanaroglou, 2018). Six
cities in China became the earliest adopters of electric bus trials in
developing countries in the late 2000s (IEG Review Team, 2019a,
2019b). More recently, more similar projects have been performed in
large cities in developing countries, such as Jakarta, Mexico City, San­
tiago, Bogota, and Medellin (C40, Clinton Foundation, & IDB, 2013; C40
Cities Finance Facility, 2019). The experimentation with hybrid buses is
the second most considerable option for LEVs. It is found in 15 experi­
ments, including several cities in China, Canada, and Southern American
countries. Meanwhile, IMC trolleybuses have been tested and adopted in
Europe, such as Coimbra (Portugal), Szeged (Hungary), and Tychy
(Poland), which already have older trolleybus systems (Almeida,
Inverno, & Santos, 2009; Borowik & Cywiński, 2016; Nádasi, Tóth, &
Balog, 2019).
The niche creation for public transport measures involves not only
the adoption of LEV fleets but also transit infrastructure provision and
R.W. Wimbadi et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023

Table 3
Experimented Public Transport Measures in the Observed Cities. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this Table legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article).

Fig. 8. The Consolidation of ASI Measures through Public Transport Experiments.

land-use changes. Developing Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems has lanes and bus stations or stops. Other measures classified under this
become part of 14 demonstration projects in developing countries, such output type are the integration of public transport networks (13 exper­
as China, India, Mexico, Turkey, and Nigeria. It includes dedicated bus iments) and the establishment of information and communication

10
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
technologies (14 experiments) to promote the ridership of public
transport and its operational performance.
However, our findings indicate that few experiments include new
services and business practices, such as 1) new/restructured routes, 2)
Automated Fare Collection (AFC) systems, 3) transit branding and
marketing strategies, 4) park and ride service, and 5) limiting service
operation. Another limited example is public campaigns to increase
community awareness to use public transport. It was part of sustainable
mobility initiatives in Winnipeg (Canada), Cordoba, and Rosario
(Argentina).
4.3. The expected outcomes of the experimented measures and their
synergy
We discover that the consolidation of ASI measures exists in the
observed experiments (Fig. 8). The ‘Improve’ measures are the most
frequently adopted ones in the observed cities (Table 3). The LEVs up­
take for public transport fleets is done along with the construction of
their supporting infrastructures during the same experiment. For
example, the adoption of electric buses is mainly associated with
charging stations (14 experiments). The primary concern regarding this
relation reported during the experiments are related to station locations
and charging management (e.g., speed and time), like the examples of
Hong Kong (Tong, 2019) and Santiago (Chile) (Lessons from Chile’s
Experience with E-mobility : The Integration of E-Buses in Santiago
(English) (2017)). Similarly, the cities with experimented IMC trol­
leybus consider the installation of new power supply networks and even
electric generator provision as important issues (Almeida et al., 2009;
Borowik & Cywiński, 2016; Nádasi et al., 2019).
Some experiments involving LEV adoption entail existing route
redesign (4 experiments) to optimize technological performance (e.g.,
fuel-recharging and energy-efficient driving) and increase public trans­
port occupancy. For example, an electric bus experiment in Minsk
(Belarus) expanded seven bus routes in the city center to capture
broader transport demand (Bezruchonak, 2019). Meanwhile, in Manila
(the Philippines), it also becomes an opportunity to revisit existing
routes served by the old Jeepney-service system (GIZ, 2019).
We discover seven measures that have the potential to result in
multiple outcomes. The deployment of various novel measures follows
the development of a new BRT system. The BRT operation contributes to
the ‘improve’ outcome. Its development is expected to attract people to
shift from private vehicles and even creates spatial development to
minimize motorized mobility. In our database, BRT is reported to have
associations with the provision of ten measures with 58 ties in total,
including its supporting infrastructure (e.g., dedicated bus lanes, bus
stations/stops, LEV uptake, automated fare collection, and TOD zones.
Others that are anticipated to have multiple outcomes are the devel­
opment of ICT systems for public transport and traffic zone regulations.
For example, bus priority signals have been placed in specific road
corridors in Xiangyang, China (IEG Review Team, 2020).
We also reveal that most of these measures are centered on supply-
side interventions. Non-technological measures that have roles as the
“shift” and “avoid” measures remain limited in our database, and they
tend to complement the “improve” measures or those who have multiple
outcomes. For example, some new service and business practices
become part of a BRT system establishment or LEV technologies
deployment. Furthermore, we also do not find any example that those
non-technological measures are knitted to technological measures that
could shape user behavior, such as the ICT for public transport.
Only one publication in the database describes an experiment that
involved the selection and consolidation of various ASI measures
simultaneously. In Hungary, Rzeszow has tested and adopted
Environmentally-Enhanced Vehicle (EEV) buses. The city also con­
structed a dedicated lane for the public buses and introduced an AFC
system to ease passenger movement to access its bus service. Addition­
ally, the city also limits bus service operation time in the city of Rzeszow
11
Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
(Smieszek, Dobrzanska, & Dobrzanski, 2019). This measure aims at
reducing the bus journey time during rush hours in some parts of the city
to allow more cyclists to use the lanes.
5. Discussion
In this present systematic review, we deepen the current under­
standing of urban experiment contribution to paving ways for low car­
bon mobility transitions. The method that we used in this study helps to
identify urban public transport experiments for climate change in 64
cities that have been documented in peer-reviewed and grey literature.
The results should be considered indicative because their experience
may not be fully reported in the literature databases. Moreover, careful
interpretation is necessary since not all of the information describing the
experiments is elaborated explicitly in the retrieved literature.
Firstly, we note that cities have become laboratories for developing
novel public transport measures to initiate low carbon mobility transi­
tions. Most of these cities identified in our database are among the top
10 GHG emitters (UNEP, 2019). Cities in Europe and Canada are the
forerunners of public transport experimentation to cut emissions. More
experiments have emerged in the past decade in developing countries,
including China, Brazil, Mexico, and Indonesia. Our findings reflect
similar locational continuity patterns with Bulkeley and Castán Broto
(2013). We also extend their findings that urban experimentation is a
global phenomenon that occurs not only in large cities with economic
and political significance7. Our discoveries show that the experiments
have also been initiated in cities with relatively small and mid-size
populations across different regions. The experimented measures vary
in different cities, although some cities are located in the same national
boundary. Therefore, this review supports that low carbon mobility
transitions must also be understood as a spatially-constituted process
(Bridge et al., 2013; Raven et al., 2012) that urban experimentation
holds the roles of selecting and assembling novel measures at the local
level.
Secondly, we reveal that most of the documented experiments in our
database have a similar objective to build a sustainable urban transport
system with LEV technologies rollout. This kind of experiment was
generally conducted in cities in developing countries. Meanwhile, most
of the experiments in European cities in this review aimed solely to
introduce LEV technologies for public transport fleets. Since the depth of
information varies in each document, we cannot fully identify whether
the latter type of experimentation attempts to establish a similar system
as the former one does. However, it is worth noting that cities in the EU
have become role models for sustainable urban transport practices for
years (Bulkeley, 2006; Pojani & Stead, 2015). Thus, our findings indi­
cate that existing urban public transport systems could determine how
urban experiments are framed and designed in the first place to pave
ways for the transitions.
Likewise, not all of the documents report whether the experiments
support the achievement of long-term plans to reduce GHG emissions.
While few experiments involved participatory-based planning to explore
and created the transition pathways, such activities were done sepa­
rately in the other cases to either develop action plans or incorporate the
agenda into the existing ones. However, as the information given in each
document varies, we still know very little whether those plans outline
specific climate change targets and strategies to embrace systemic
changes. Other scholars call for experimental approaches in urban
planning practices to support systematic changes toward a desired sus­
tainable vision (Carroli, 2018; Wolfram, 2018). It will help social
learning between niche and regime actors to align transition pathways
and the selected measures. Despite the limited information, our findings
suggest that urban public transport experiments can be considered a
7
They classify 100 top cities based on total population, density, Gross Do­
mestic Product (GDP), and transnational municipal network membership
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
platform that facilitates the adoption of novel measures and creates
momentum for long-term changes. The momentum is generated from
either backcasting experimental activities or separate policymaking
processes to incorporate climate change mitigation targets into
city-level plans.
Thirdly, we reveal that the experiments help select and consolidate
different ASI-based public transport measures for low carbon mobility.
The deployment of LEV technologies for public transport fleets emerges
as the primary “improve” option in most of the experiments, especially
electric-type vehicles (i.e., electric buses, hybrid buses, and IMC trol­
leybuses. This finding supports that the notion of electricity will be the
leading energy carrier for the transport measures to pursue the 2 ◦ C
goals (Agora Verkehrswende et al., 2020). Other researchers urge syn­
ergy among different ASI measures to optimize the decarbonization
potentials and their co-benefits (Lah, 2017). Integrated public transport
is one of the practices that has been widely applied in European and
eastern Asia cities to advance environmental sustainability, economic
development, and inclusive development (Suzuki, Cervero, & Iuchi,
2013). Based on our results, what has been mostly documented is the
combination of improved-type measures, especially electric vehicle
technologies and their supporting infrastructures (e.g., charging sta­
tions). However, we also find that the LEV uptake for public transport
fleets is associated with other “shift” and “avoid” measures such as BRT
and TOD development. Although our findings capture the assembling of
multiple ASI measures during the experiments, we could not fully depict
whether they are introduced and knitted in an integrated manner. Only a
few cities are reported that deliberately attempted to establish an inte­
grated public transport network. Likewise, there is still a lack of un­
documented practices in how non-technological measures (e.g., business
and citizen practices) are formed and connected to the technological
ones.
It is worth noting other limitations of this review besides the depth of
information given in each document. Firstly, we could not obtain any
document that shares American cities’ experience from neither the grey
literature database nor the peer-reviewed one. The latter has relatively
comprehensive publication records in Anglo-American countries
(Newell & Cousins, 2014). Wimbadi and Djalante (2020) also found that
research related to decarbonization for climate change mitigation in the
USA is much fewer than those in other top GHG emitters. Secondly,
although we included rail-based transport in our SLR protocol, there is
no rail-based mode reported as the measures reported in the selected
papers. The lack of existing railway infrastructure and high up-front
investment often hamper the selection of rail-based transport as the
primary option for climate change (Creutzig et al., 2015). Thirdly, such
experimental activities might not be well captured and documented in
peer-reviewed literature or organizational databases. Some might be
written in non-English languages. Thus, web-based search engines (e.g.,
Google Search) might expand the potential publications, but it may in­
crease selection bias. For instance, Google Search uses algorithms that
personalize information based on user attitudes, so the results tend to
selectively expose information (Holone, 2016). Thus, it is not used in
this paper because it does not fit with the systematic literature review
principles (i.e., replicability).
6. Conclusion
Climate change mitigation has attracted urban stakeholders and
policymakers to introduce novel transport measures and policies over
the past two decades. Amidst the urgent needs to achieve the Paris
Agreement goal, these innovative solutions shall be arranged in an in­
tegrated manner to maximize potential outcomes in reducing CO2
emissions and realizing other benefits. In this paper, we seek to answer
whether and how urban experimentation for climate change can ensure
the selection and consolidation of ASI-based public transport measures
to support low carbon mobility transitions.
Building on the existing ASI framework and sustainability
12
Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
transitions, we conclude that experimentation serves as a critical plat­
form to select and consolidate novel ASI-public transport measures
supported by strategic planning to address long-term climate change
targets in cities. The experiments generally help create niches for LEV
technologies (i.e., electric fleets) and BRT systems to cut the emission
through improved energy efficiency. The experiments ensure that the
selected improved measures are coupled with other “shift” and “avoid”
measures. Those relations reflect that the experimentation could help
knit together different ASI measures to build a sustainable transport
system for low carbon mobility transitions. More importantly, the ex­
periments can be designed for or followed by incorporating climate
change targets into plans to support low carbon mobility. Thus, our
results affirm that urban experiments for climate change hold a pivotal
role between policymaking for transition pathways and developing ASI-
based measures to enable the transitions. They could facilitate planning,
selecting, and consolidating ASI-based public transport measures
simultaneously at the early stage of their development.
Our review also gives policy implications to the current efforts to
pursue the Paris Agreement goals, especially in the urban transport
sector. First, future urban transport experimentation for climate change
must not be limited to only testing and adopting technological in­
novations but also involving agenda-setting to set long-term targets/
pathways (i.e., with backcasting scenario planning). In that way, an
experiment is potentially more beneficial to ensure and integrate the
adopted ASI measures to enable the systemic changes toward low carbon
mobility with a sustainable transport system. Second, the emergence of
electric mobility in urban public transport is observed across different
regions, and it will become a trend in the coming years. Thus, urban
stakeholders, including niche and regime actors, should take fully the
opportunity that experimentation could offer to establish the technolo­
gies and create momentum to leverage the importance of climate change
mitigation as part of building a sustainable transport system at the city
level.
We recommend some directions for future research. First, there is a
need to evaluate the efficacy of the adopted measures from the experi­
ments in achieving the emission reduction targets. It is crucial to identify
their consequences and how urban stakeholders deal with the changes. It
will provide a broader understanding of how urban experimentation
could inform policymaking or planning and vice versa to create or revisit
transition pathways. Second, future studies with a case study need to
focus on the process of governing experimentation and its relations to
policymaking for low carbon transitions. For instance, these include how
stakeholders’ motivation and preferences to select particular technolo­
gies over others and their challenges to build coalitions to either support
or resist novelties. It is also essential to seek how stakeholders integrate
the selected measures and link them with their pathways and vision for
low carbon mobility.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The first author is a second-year doctoral student at the United Na­
tions University for the Institute of Advanced Studies of Sustainability
(UNU-IAS). He would like to express his gratitude to the Japan Foun­
dation for UNU (JF-UNU) for supporting his study at UNU-IAS. The
authors would like to thank Dr. Osamu Saito and Dr. Philip Vaughter for
their inputs to develop the first author’s PhD research proposal.
Appendix A
See Table A1–A3
R.W. Wimbadi et al.
Table A1
Detailed Steps for Peer-Reviewed Document Collection in Scopus.
Steps
Step 1: Insert the relevant keywords related to public
transport, climate change, and urban
Step 2: limit the time between 1990 and 2020
Step 3: Limit to article journals, conference papers,
book chapters, and book
Step 4: Limit to relevant subject areas only and exclude
those not relevant
Step 5: Excluding non-English Documents
Total Documents After Eligibility Screening (Abstract)
Total Documents After Eligibility Screening (Full-text)
Table A2
Detailed Steps for Grey Literature Collection.
Databases
The C40 Research
The C40 (www.c40.org/researches)
Cities The C40 Knowledge hub (https://www.
c40knowledgehub.org)
GIZ (https://publikationen.giz.de/)
GIZ
GIZ Changing-Transport Projects
(www.changing-transport.org/projects/)
The ICCT (theicct.org/publications)
The World Bank (https://documents.worldbank.org/)
Total Documents After Eligibility Screening (Full text)
Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023
Search Strings Records
(n)
(TITLE-ABS-KEY ("public transport*" OR "public transit" OR "mass transport*" OR "mass transit") AND TITLE- 800
ABS-KEY (bus OR train OR "rail transit" OR "rail transport*" OR "rapid transit" OR "sustainable transport*" OR
"sustainable mobility" OR "low carbon mobility" OR "low carbon transport*") AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ("climate
change" OR "climate change mitigation" OR emission OR "CO2 emission*" OR "carbon dioxide" OR co2) AND
TITLE-ABS-KEY (urban OR city OR municipal*))
(TITLE-ABS-KEY ("public transport*" OR "public transit" OR "mass transport*" OR "mass transit") AND TITLE- 744
ABS-KEY (bus OR train OR "rail transit" OR "rail transport*" OR "rapid transit" OR "sustainable transport*" OR
"sustainable mobility" OR "low carbon mobility" OR "low carbon transport*") AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ("climate
change" OR "climate change mitigation" OR emission OR "CO2 emission*" OR "carbon dioxide" OR CO2) AND
TITLE-ABS-KEY (urban OR city OR municipal*) AND PUBYEAR > 1989)
(TITLE-ABS-KEY ("public transport*" OR "public transit" OR "mass transport*" OR "mass transit") AND TITLE- 732
ABS-KEY (bus OR train OR "rail transit" OR "rail transport*" OR "rapid transit" OR "sustainable transport*" OR
"sustainable mobility" OR "low carbon mobility" OR "low carbon transport*") AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ("climate
change" OR "climate change mitigation" OR emission OR "CO2 emission*" OR "carbon dioxide" OR CO2) AND
TITLE-ABS-KEY (urban OR city OR municipal*) AND PUBYEAR > 1989) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ar") OR
LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "cp") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ch") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "bk"))
(TITLE-ABS-KEY ("public transport*" OR "public transit" OR "mass transport*" OR "mass transit") AND TITLE- 598
ABS-KEY (bus OR train OR "rail transit" OR "rail transport*" OR "rapid transit" OR "sustainable transport*" OR
"sustainable mobility" OR "low carbon mobility" OR "low carbon transport*") AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ("climate
change" OR "climate change mitigation" OR emission OR "CO2 emission*" OR "carbon dioxide" OR CO2) AND
TITLE-ABS-KEY (urban OR city OR municipal*) AND PUBYEAR > 1989) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ar") OR
LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "cp") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ch") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "bk")) AND (EXCLUDE
(SUBJAREA, "MATH") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "PHYS") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "MEDI") OR EXCLUDE
(SUBJAREA, "ARTS") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "CHEM") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "AGRI") OR EXCLUDE
(SUBJAREA, "MATE") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "CENG") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "BIOC") OR EXCLUDE
(SUBJAREA, "PHAR") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "IMMU"))
(TITLE-ABS-KEY ("public transport*" OR "public transit" OR "mass transport*" OR "mass transit") AND TITLE- 563
ABS-KEY (bus OR train OR "rail transit" OR "rail transport*" OR "rapid transit" OR "sustainable transport*" OR
"sustainable mobility" OR "low carbon mobility" OR "low carbon transport*") AND TITLE-ABS-KEY ("climate
change" OR "climate change mitigation" OR emission OR "CO2 emission*" OR "carbon dioxide" OR CO2) AND
TITLE-ABS-KEY (urban OR city OR municipal*) AND PUBYEAR > 1989) AND (LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ar") OR
LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "cp") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "ch") OR LIMIT-TO (DOCTYPE, "bk")) AND (EXCLUDE
(SUBJAREA, "MATH") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "PHYS") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "MEDI") OR EXCLUDE
(SUBJAREA, "ARTS") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "CHEM") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "AGRI") OR EXCLUDE
(SUBJAREA, "MATE") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "CENG") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "BIOC") OR EXCLUDE
(SUBJAREA, "PHAR") OR EXCLUDE (SUBJAREA, "IMMU")) AND (LIMIT-TO (LANGUAGE, "English"))
96
19
Steps and Search Strings Records Records after eligibility
(n) screening (n)
Screening manually throughout the database due to its limited search
5 1
features
Topics: transport and urban planning
44 2
Article type: case studies and best practices
Key terms: public transport, mass transport
20 1
Language: English
Download all publications in English because most of them are
52 2
related to public transport
Key terms: public transport
Document type: consultant report, consulting report, report, working 53 2
paper, ZEBRA publication
Keywords: public transport
Time: 1990 to 2020
Topic: urban transport 187 14
Document Type: Implementation Completion and Results Report,
Publications, and Reports
22
13
R.W. Wimbadi et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023

Table A3
The Experiments of Public Transport for Low Carbon Mobility.
Date of
Country Cities Experiment Themes/ Project Names Experiment Publication Sources
Start End

Cordoba
GEF Sustainable Transport and Air Quality Argentina - GEF Sustainable Transport and Air Quality Program Project
Argentina Posadas 2010 2014
Program (English) 2015)
Rosario
Belarus Minsk Introduction of Electric Buses 2017 n/a Bezruchonak (2019)
Rio de Janeiro C40-CCI Hybrid and Electric Bus Test
Brazil 2011 n/a C40 et al. (2013)
Sao Paulo Program
Gatineau
Halifax
Ottawa
The Urban Transportation Showcase
Quebec 2001 2009 MacIsaac (2009)
Program (UTSP)
Canada Vancouver
Waterloo
Whitehorse
Winnipeg n/a n/a
Introduction of Electric Buses Mohamed et al. (2018)
Montreal 2005 2005
Sustainable Transport and Air Quality for Chile - Sustainable Transport and Air Quality for Santiago (GEF) Project
2003 2009
Santiago (GEF) Project (English) 2010)
Chile Santiago
C40-CCI Hybrid and Electric Bus Test ICCT and C40 (2019); (Lessons from Chile’s Experience with E-mobility : The
2011 n/a
Program Integration of E-Buses in Santiago (English) (2017))
CO2 Emission Reduction through Public
Beijing 2010 n/a Zhao and Tang (2017)
Transport
Changzhi Sustainable Urban Transport
Changzhi 2012 2018 199b)
Project
Chengdu
China GEF Large City Congestion and
Harbin 2013 2018 IEG Review Team (2019b)
Carbon Reduction Project
Suzhou
Chongqing
Dongguan
China
Jinan
Nanchang China-GEF-World Bank Urban Transport China - GEF World Bank Urban Transport Partnership Program Project
2008 2014
Urumqi Partnership Program (English) 2015)
Weihai
Xi’an
Zhengzhou
Xiangyang Hubei Xiangyang Urban Transport 2012 2019 IEG Review Team (2020)
Hong Kong Introduction of Electric Buses 2010 n/a Tong (2019)
Shenzhen Emission Trading Schemes Pilot Project 2013 n/a Cai et al. (2015), Jiang et al. (2016)
C40-CCI Hybrid and Electric Bus Test
Bogota 2011 n/a C40 et al. (2013)
Program
Colombia
The Zero Emission Bus Rapid-deployment
Medellin 2017 n/a ICCT and C40 (2019, 2020)
Accelerator (ZEBRA)
CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe) -
Berlin 2004 2006 Gonçalves et al. (2008)
hydrogen bus project
Germany
Scenario-Based Sustainable Transport
Potsdam 2013 n/a Schmale et al. (2015)
Planning
Budapest Introduction of Electric Buses 2016 n/a
Hungary Development of Electric Transportation Nádasi et al. (2019)
Szeged 2008 2015
Large Project
Hubli-
Dharwad
Indore
India Mysore Sustainable Urban Transport Project (SUTP) 2010 2018 India - Sustainable Urban Transport Project (English) 2019)
Naya Raipur
Pimpri
Chinchwad
Indonesia Jakarta Introduction of Electric Buses 2020 n/a C40 Cities Finance Facility (2020)
Introduction of Climate Friendly Measures Mexico - Introduction of Climate Friendly Measures in Transport Project
2003 2009
in Transport (English) (2009))
Mexico City
The Zero Emission Bus Rapid-deployment
Mexico 2017 n/a C40 Cities Finance Facility (2019)
Accelerator (ZEBRA)
Monterrey
Urban Transport Transformation Program 2010 2019 Mexico - Urban Transport Transformation Project (English) 2019)
Tijuana
Introduction of Hybrid Buses 2004 n/a Beekman and van den Hoed (2016)
Amsterdam
Introduction of Electric Buses 2016 n/a Bakker and Konings (2018)
Scenario-Based Sustainable Mobility
Breda n/a n/a Bos and Temme (2014)
Planning
Netherlands
Arnhem Introduction of Electric Buses n/a n/a
Den Bosch Introduction of Electric Buses 2009 n/a
Bakker and Konings (2018)
Rotterdam Introduction of Electric Buses 2017 n/a
Utrecht Introduction of Electric Buses 2013 n/a
Nigeria Lagos Lagos Urban Transport Project 2 2011 2017 Nigeria - Second Lagos Urban Transport Project (English) (2017))
Manila 2017 n/a GIZ and DOTr of the Philippines (2016); GIZ (2019)
(continued on next page)

14
R.W. Wimbadi et al. Sustainable Cities and Society 72 (2021) 103023

Table A3 (continued )
Date of
Country Cities Experiment Themes/ Project Names Experiment Publication Sources
Start End

The The Jeepney + NAMA of the Philippine

Philippines Government
Jaworzno Introduction of Electric Buses 2015 n/a
The Development of Sustainable Public Taczanowski et al. (2018)
Krakow 2014 n/a
Transport
Poland
The Development of Sustainable Public
Rzeszow 2007 2013 Smieszek et al. (2019)
Transport
Tychy TROLLEY Project 2010 2013 Borowik and Cywiński (2016)
CIVITAS (City, VITAlity, and Sustainability)
Coimbra 2003 n/a Almeida et al. (2009)
for electric trolley bus
Portugal
CUTE (Clean Urban Transport for Europe) –
Porto 2004 2006 Gonçalves et al. (2008)
hydrogen bus project
Scenario-Based Sustainable Transport
Sweden Kista 2014 n/a Robèrt (2017)
Planning
The Development of Bus Rapid Transit
Turkey Istanbul 2005 n/a Cengiz (2017), GIZ (2011)
System
Hanoi Urban Transport Development
Vietnam Hanoi 2008 2016 Vietnam - Hanoi Urban Transport Development Project (English) (2018)
Project

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