PhD: Urban freight - a matter of concern for cities?
Rafael Rosales defended his thesis PhD thesis on 24.05.2024 at the University of Bergen. The thesis title is: "Urban freight – a matter of concern for cities?"
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Cities around the world are experiencing increasing challenges related to our shopping habits: people are buying more online and having it delivered to their door, while several new services contribute to more traffic in urban areas. This has led to freight transport becoming a societal problem that authorities increasingly have to address.
Freight transport is not a new phenomenon, but competition and private innovation have been central when cities have tried to balance regulations with incentives. In his dissertation, Rosales examines how authorities in Norwegian urban areas have handled the challenges that freight transport can contribute to. The dissertation shows that Norwegian authorities have viewed freight transport as the responsibility of businesses and have almost exclusively focused on how they can influence personal transport. This has made it difficult to gather knowledge and resources that can contribute to more sustainable freight transport in cities.
Bergen, Oslo, Stavanger, and Trondheim are all cities that have collaborated with other public authorities, with each other, and with businesses to solve local challenges related to freight transport. By looking at how these cities have collaborated among themselves and with others to achieve more sustainable freight transport, this dissertation shows that public authorities need to take greater ownership of the issue. This requires clear division of responsibilities, an active role in collaboration with businesses, and a unified narrative about what sustainable freight transport looks like.
Rafael Rosales (b. 1994) holds a master’s degree in Energy, Environment, and Society from the University of Stavanger and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh. The doctoral work is part of the research project Freight logistics in sustainable cities (CityFreight) at the Center for Climate and Energy Transition (CET) at the University of Bergen. The main supervisor is Håvard Haarstad, and the co-supervisors are Simon Neby and Mahir Yazar. Rosales is currently employed as a researcher at NORCE in Stavanger.
