Overview

TRAN: Goals, priorities and actions for

sustainable mobility: what concrete
measures should the European Union take
in order to develop and improve its urban
transport policy? How can national
governments contribute to this process?
Measured in time of transport and communication, the whole round
globe is now smaller than a small European country was a hundred
years ago.
Getting from one side to another of the city has become a general
frustration not only for citizens of large urban areas, but also for those that live
in small towns: traffic congestion, transport cost and a rather bad organised
public transportation system have transformed transportation into chaos. All of
this stresses the need for the European Union to implement a more sustainable
urban transport policy, covering both public and personal transportation, the
environmental aspects, as well as partnerships between EU countries.
The Action Plan on urban mobility adopted on September 2009 proposes
20 measures to encourage and help local, regional and national authorities in
achieveing their goals. With the Action Plan, the European Commission presents
for the first time a comprehensive support package in the field of urban mobility.
The actions are being launched over the three years following the Action Plan's
adoption. The European Commission will conduct a review of the
implementation of the Action Plan in the year 2012, and will assess the need for
further
action.
Also, over the past years, the Commission has launched a range of
initiatives in the field of urban mobility, including research, applied research and
demonstration activities, of which a rather notable one is the Eltis web portal,
which is aimed at European professionals working in the field of urban
transport, environment, energy and health. The new web portal acts as an urban
mobility observatory by facilitating the exchange of information and good
practice
in
the
field
of
urban
mobility
in
Europe.
Alongside human urban transport, there is UFT, urban freight transport,
which adds up to pollution and congestion, not to mention to traffic accidents
and
unpleasant
sight.
On a smaller scale, urban mobility is of growing concern to citizens. Nine

out of ten EU citizens believe that the traffic situation in their area should be
improved2. The choices that people make in the way they travel will affect not
only future urban development but also the economic well-being of citizens and
companies. It will also be essential for the success of the EUs overall strategy to
combat climate change, achieve the 20-20-20 objective3 and to promote
cohesion.
The Kyoto Protocol and Europe 2020 are also something that should be
beared in mind while proposing changes, as to keep up with environmental
goals. These projects propose alternative fuels in order to lower GHG emissions
and replace oil based carburants, as reserves are expected to exhaust by 2050.
With all of these being said, there are still numerous solutions for
transportation problems across the EU, at local, regional, national and european
levels, with the best answers coming from the citizens that face these problems
on a daily basis.
Keywords: urban transport policy, Clean Transport Systems (CTS),
GHG emission reduction, Europe 2020, Expert Group on Future
Transport Fuels, Transport & Environment Joint Expert Group,
Clean Vehicles Directive, urban mobility, Action Plan on Urban
Mobility, Kyoto Protocol, urban freight transport
Links:
-

http://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/urban/urban_mobility/
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?
uri=CELEX:52006DC0314:EN:HTML:NOT
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?
uri=CELEX:52009DC0490:EN:NOT
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/homepage?lang=en
http://www.innovation-enterprise.com/archives/vol/10/issue/23/article/2629/cities-and-innovative-urban-transport-policies