Policy Context Print

In a recent Green Paper entitled Towards a New Culture for Urban Mobility, the European Commission (2007) reports on the results of a series of consultations with local authorities, citizens and other relevant stakeholders with respect to the future of urban transport and the role of EU policy. The paper notes the key problems of urban transport in Europe today, namely chronic congestion, environmental pollution, road traffic accidents and points to the necessity to invest more in collective transport and the organization of ‘co-modality’ between different modes of collective transport.

 

Recommendations made by the Green Paper and the stakeholders consulted include:

  1. Support alternatives to private car use such as walking and cycling but also car-sharing
  2. Invest more in awareness campaigns concerning safety and security measures associated with alternative modes of transport (such as the wear of bicycle helmets).
  3. Develop an adequate parking policy that supports citizens in using park and ride facilities thus combining the use of the car with the use of public transport and avoiding cars in the town centres
  4. Develop intelligent transport information systems providing users of the transport system information in advance about congestion so as to allow an optimised trip planning – this could lead to as much as a 20% increase of capacity based on existing infrastructure.
  5. Use urban-charging systems and adapt these to differentiated forms of use according to frequency and time (i.e. towards smart charging)
  6. Promote the development of an efficient and accessible public transport that is characterized by high frequency levels of service and good quality.
  7. Allow for a flexible and multiple use of infrastructure, for instance with regard to bus and taxi lanes or flexible loading / parking zones.
  8. Promote at national level the development, demonstration and subsequent wide use of new technologies for cars towards less pollution and low emissions – and in parallel tighten standards for new and used cars so as to phase out faster the use of cars which pollute more
  9. Consider the restricting of the access of over-dimensioned cars and trucks in densely populated urban areas given the over-proportional emissions of such cars but also their safety record.
  10. Support the use of alternative modes of transport by new freight services within cities rather than over-reliance on the car.
  11. Coordinate land use and transport planning in and around cities to avoid urban sprawl.

The role of the EU in the field of urban transport is to assist cities to exchange information, and in the transfer of good practices and, of course, to contribute to the creation of external but also general policy conditions that are conducive to the implementation of sustainable strategies in the field of urban transport. Besides funding research & demonstration activities and knowledge networking activities, European financing for urban transport policies is also possible through regional funds.