1. Clean Air Zones

Clean Air Zone (CAZ) charges are often seen as a punitive tax on driving. But they are also a potential source of data to establish supply and demand for new transport services, before they are developed. A Transport Group can involve drivers collectively linking their CAZ payments with the development of specific new shared services that will enable them to own fewer cars. Using self-sovereign IDs, they can pseudonymously share data with AI without giving up control of it. Linking reductions in car ownership to the development of new services allows Voluntary Carbon Credits (VCC) to be issued, providing a return on the investment required. Drivers buying VCC for a specific Transport Group, as part of their CAZ payments: Indicates demand, Provides a return on investment and Ensures the cost of new services are covered. Drivers can retire VCC, to offset car use, or sell them to other polluters on a VCC market. The overall effect is to develop new transport services that enable drivers to own fewer cars and shift the cost of using CAZs from drivers to major polluters.​​

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Transport Groups

Forming a Transport Group ensures the viability of new services before changes, to transport provision and car ownership, are made on the ground. This allows a combination of private cars to be 'traded-in' for a combination of alternatives, and avoids paying for both at the same time. A smart contract is programmed, linking blockchain tokens which are tagged to each of the components required:

• Compatible Users

• New Services

• Investment

• Clean Air Zone (CAZ) payments

• Voluntary Carbon Credits (VCC)

• Pay-Per-Use (PPU) rate

Establishing compatible supply and demand of Transport Group members is similar to conventional crowdfunding, but instead of raising a one-off amount of capital, the end point is agreeing to cover the costs of the new shared services. This agreement is made through a smart contract, held on a decentralised network, which will manage the pay-per-use rate of new services when they are provided.​​​

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CAZ Payments as Voluntary Carbon Credits (VCCs)

Drivers can direct their CAZ payments to VCCs issued by a specific Transport Group. These are validated by verified reductions in car ownership, creating a measurable and tradeable carbon asset. The revenue from VCC sales is used to pay returns to investors holding Transport Group Tokens (TGT).

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Each internal combustion engine (ICE) car emits around 6 tonnes of CO₂ per year. At a projected VCC price of £50 per tonne by the end of 2026, a single car reduction generates £300 annually. That carbon value can support a 5% return on £6,000 of investment in TGT.

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In practice, replacing 4 privately owned cars enables the issue of £1,200 in VCCs, leveraging £24,000 of investable capital, enough to fund a shared EV and e-bikes. Investors in TGT are paid a return from VCC revenue. Smart contracts, controlling the pay-per-use rates of new services, buy back tokens over time and transfer ownership to users.

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Drivers benefit from access to new services, while investors benefit from predictable returns linked to rising carbon prices.

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One challenge for Shared Access EVs (SAEV) is 'who owns the car?'. In the short term this could be one of the users, acting a both provider and consumer, a 'Prosumer' - a term coined in domestic solar. In the medium term Transport Groups could be set up as Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (DAO), which act as legal entities able to own physical assets. It is suggested that Transport Group DAOs could be tested in the Bank of England/FCA’s Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS).

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​​​Members of a Transport Group can invest in their own new services by selling their cars to auto-traders for TGT, which the traders buy from the Transport Group, see Diagram 1 below. This avoids the 'carbon rebound effect', where the money saved by owning fewer cars might otherwise be used for carbon intensive activities, such as air travel. ​The members of a Transport Group collectively shift the money, which is currently trapped by their combined private cars, to the development of a combination of shared alternatives that meet the same needs. All of this can be done online before changes, to car ownership or transport provision, are made on the ground. It avoids a transition period during which new services co-exist with the private cars of target users, a problem that increases costs and presents a barrier to change.

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