REGARDING ROAD FREIGHT VEHICLES IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Traffic congestion in Tokyo, Osaka, and other large Japanese cities has become so severe that the environmental problem of air pollution is now the main theme. In the busy urban centre of Tokyo, efforts at improving the situation are being focused on road freight vehicles, as they have strong economic and environmental effects. Hitherto, policies have mainly attempted to reduce exhaust emissions, but it is also necessary to improve freight vehicle transport efficiency, and analyse how this will improve the urban environment. In Tokyo, freight transport efficiency has become especially bad, with energy consumption of 1600kcal per tonne-km, compared with only 450kcal in the Chyugoku area of Japan. Improvements could be obtained from new forms of road preparation, better servicing and maintenance, and a more viable distribution system. They would lead to much lower carbon dioxide emissions. In Japan, about 80% of lorries are light lorries, which cover about 50% of freight mileage but carry only about 10% of road freight. The carrying efficiency of these light lorries has been decreasing. Some progress has been made in developing a logistics system to improve this situation. Doubling the load capacity use of freight vehicles could more than halve their energy consumption and greatly reduce carbon dioxide emissions. For the covering abstract, see IRRD 886884.