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 EU’s 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/2-3/article/2629/cities-and-

innovative-urban-transport-policies