Regional Meeting on Sustainable Transport Policies in South Eastern Europe

21-22 June 2007, Budapest, Hungary

“Key problems and priorities in urban

transport sector in SEE countries from
NGO perspective”

Zvezdan Kalmar, CEKOR, Serbia

Serbian coordinator for CEE Bankwatch Network
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 SEE Development Watch
organizations included in this
presentation

“Zelena Akcija” Zagreb

• “Eco- sense” Skopje
• “CEKOR” Belgrade
• “Za Zemiata”Bulgaria

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 Some of the common problems in
Urban Transport in SEE countries
• Car culture is taking a strong grip of society.
• Need for giving priority to sustainable transport solutions
• Environmental laws passed, but there are problems with
implementation of SEA, EIA, laws on protection of air,
ground, water…
• Unsustainable strategies of transport or Lack of strategy
and tendency towards large prestige- “hardware” projects
• Lack of strong Legislative and Banking- Financial back up/
interest for sustainable projects

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 General Situation in Transport
sector in Serbia
• Outdated and insufficient transport strategy
• Slow and insufficient implementation of EIA and SEIA
legislation
• In 2006 the government has approved the “strategy” for
highways development.
• Strategy for sustainable development in early phases
• Laws on protection of air, water etc. are under essential
reconstruction
• Huge lacks exist in institutions capacities enforcing the
laws on protection of air, soil, water, noise
• Restructuring of publicly owned Transport companies

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Situation with Urban Transport in
Belgrade
• Explosion of usage of private
cars
• Problematic rail- urban transport
connection
• Transit thorough Belgrade
downtown
• Insufficient condition of public
transport
• Lack of any usage of bicycles
• Hard life of pedestrians
• Lack of political will for
introducing of measures for
sustainable transport

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 Some of the solutions for
transport situation in Belgrade
• “Soft” measures for reduction of number of cars on
the streets
• Absolute priority of the public transport in Belgrade
streets/ PROTECTED YELLOW LINES
• Smaller and “smarter” vehicles in urban transport
• Cycling and walking
• Cheep taxi/ “closed” zones
• Park-and-ride system from the edges of the city
• Better fare system
• Modernization of electrical vehicles in urban transport
• Light rail system
• Belgrade Bypass and Inner ring road
• Better incorporation of rail system in Urban system7
Traffic congestion in Belgrade-
Slow public transport because
lines are occupied by cars

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General measures that could positively
affect transport situation in Belgrade
• Full implementation of
polluter pays principle
• Internalization of external
costs of T. sector
• Implementation f Aarhus
convention in Transport
sector
• Implementing Kiev protocol
on SEIA and ESPOO
convention
• Stricter use of economic
instruments and
environmental taxes for
urban transport
improvements
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 Some of the problems in Urban
Transport in Zagreb- Croatia
• Slow public transport because lines occupied by cars.
• Public underground garages in the centre of the city,
plan includes an area where it is forbidden to build public
underground garages
• It is really important that bike paths should be on roads,
not taking space away from pedestrians
• Ideology of the “car based life”
• Mixing of commercial/ business interest for public
interest
• Wasting of energy and resources on Promotion of huge
infrastructure projects

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 10 Measures for improvement of
Urban Transport in Zagreb
• Improvement of urban/ suburban rail traffic
• Improvement of tramway traffic
• Improvement of bus traffic
• Improvement of cycling
• Improvement of Traffic signalization and regulation
• Upgrading of streets
• Cheaper taxi service
• Synchronization of different modes of urban transport
• Urban landscape policy positive for urban transport
development
• Additional measures
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 Skopje Urban Transport Situation
• The air quality is very poor in the city
• Problems with big congestion
• Most of the citizens do not want to use the public transport
as their service is not reliable and the condition of the
buses is below all the standards
• The city has only buses as a mode of public transportation
• There is no regulation for heavy vehicles
• New environmental law was passed, but the water and
noise legislation is still waiting for approval
• SEIA bylaws are not in place yet, most likely they will be
introduced by 2008
• At the moment the Skopje city ring (25 km, around 100
million EUR) is under construction. The project is financed
by EBRD and EIB
• In general the situation in the public transport has not
changed since 2004 12
 Final remarks
• Need for enforcing EIA, SEIA and other environmental measures
(protection and development)
• Strengthening NGOs for taking part in planning processes
• Opening of planning processes (voice of people)/ for different
approach
• Need for Management and technical assistance to governments in
planning of sustainable transport
• Establishing financial, legal frameworks for investment in
sustainable urban transport
• Ideological, educational, political changes are needed for change in
direction of sustainable transport sectors
• Need for change in transport policies of IFIs toward financing-
developing- backing up sustainable transport sectors in SEE
countries
• Protection of public interest from quasi public/ corporative interest

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 Solutions are on us

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Thank You!!!