LSE Fellow Awarded the Global School of Sustainability Grant for Project on Driving Restriction Policies
Dr Zach Dickson has been awarded the Global School of Sustainability Grant for his project "From Evidence to Support: Communicating the Co-Benefits of Driving Restrictions."
The project will explore the driving restriction policies such as Ultra Low Emission Zones (ULEZ) and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs), increasingly central to urban sustainability strategies across the UK and Europe. The policies are often politically contested, despite existing research showing they can reduce pollution and improve public health.
Zach said:
"This project addresses a key question for sustainable urban transitions: can support for driving restrictions be increased by communicating credible evidence on the co-benefits of pollution mitigation?
"Urban air pollution remains one of the most pressing, unequal, and immediate sustainability challenges facing advanced economies. Transport emissions are a major contributor to urban air quality problems, and cities are under increasing regulatory and political pressure to implement policies that reduce exposure to harmful pollutants. Over the past decade, a growing body of environmental and urban economics research has demonstrated that reductions in air pollution can generate substantial social benefits, including improvements in public health, educational outcomes, and public safety.
"At the same time, political science research shows that environmental policies imposing visible and concentrated costs on specific groups often encounter strong public opposition, even when aggregate benefits are large. As a result, some of the most effective local sustainability interventions remain politically fragile, subject to backlash, dilution, or reversal."
Zach's project will combine secondary empirical analysis with a pre-registered online survey experiment, and will involve a dissemination workshop that brings together academic researchers, policymakers, and local government stakeholders. The project will run until April 2027.