Towards a new culture for urban mobility

With the majority of European Union citizens living in urban areas, the challenges of urban mobility are a key concern for the European Commission. However, growing transport demands may negatively affect our quality of life and our economy. Cities all across Europe face similar problems of congestion, road safety, security, air and noise pollution and climate change due to CO2 emissions.

For instance, in the EU as a whole, road congestion costs an average 1% of our Gross Domestic Product annually, as it disrupts commuting and freight transport. In the meantime, the main environmental issues in towns and cities stem from the domination of oil as a transport fuel, which generates CO2 and air pollutant emissions with the resulting negative impact on citizens’ health. In fact, urban mobility is responsible for 40% of CO2 emissions in road transport and 70% of emissions of other pollutants arising from road transport. Our citizens’ safety is also affected: two in three road accidents and one in three road fatalities now happen in urban areas. How must we rethink urban mobility to guarantee quality of life and economic development in our towns and cities?

With the recent adoption of a number of documents that tackle these challenges, Europe has now reached a strategic moment in its transport policy. In September 2007, the European Commission presented its Green Paper on Urban Mobility, which was followed by the Logistics and Freight Action Plan in October 2007. A new proposal for the procurement of clean and energy efficient vehicles was adopted in December 2007.

Regarding transport fuels, the package on European energy policy, adopted by the European Commission on 10 January 2007, strengthened the support given to the market development of biofuels by proposing a binding minimum target for biofuels of 10% of motor fuels by 2020. This is part of the 20% renewable energy target for 2020. Member States endorsed this approach during the European Council of March 2007. Following the mandate given by European governments, the Commission presented a legislative proposal for the promotion of renewable energy on 23 January 2008. This proposal includes clear requirements for Member States to achieve the new legally binding 10% target for biofuels.

A coherent urban mobility policy

The Green Paper on urban mobility is the first strategic paper entirely devoted to possible common elements of European transport policy in the urban area. The EU, in fact, has been dealing with urban transport in one way or another for many years. A first step to a common European approach on urban mobility was the Citizens’ Network in 1995. Since then, a number of initiatives have been initiated in the context of the European transport policy, with the aim to promote information exchange, benchmarking and demonstration actions on urban transport. Other EU policies, such as environment, internal market, public procurement, regional policy and research, have also developed diverse actions with an impact on urban transport. They have all contributed to shape urban transport policies in an indirect way, on the basis of their objectives, and often without an active involvement of transport policy. This situation resulted in a lack of a coherent urban transport policy at European level. Recognising the growing problems prevailing in European towns and cities, the Commission sought to provide common solutions to solve these problems together. Consequently, the overall aim of the Green Paper is not to impose solutions from above but to enable change.

Responding to the above-mentioned challenges faced by European towns and cities, the Green Paper identifies five main objectives for improving urban mobility, which are:

• Free-flowing towns and cities
• Greener towns and cities
• Smarter urban transport
• Accessible urban transport
• Safe and secure urban transport

The Green Paper also looks at the need to create a new urban mobility culture in Europe through education, training and awareness raising activities.

The debate launched by the Green Paper is led by a list of 25 questions that will help focus the consultation period, open until 15 March 2008. One recurring question is that of the role that the EU should play in facilitating common solutions, that is, the extent of Europe’s ‘added value’ to sustainable urban mobility. In this sense, research, guidance, innovation with a focus on new technologies, interoperability and the exchange of best practices are key elements of the Green Paper.

A balanced and integrated approach

Consultations with stakeholders previous to the presentation of the Green Paper confirmed the need for EU action to help develop and implement joint solutions of European interest. Subsidiarity is thus seen as an opportunity in the search for common solutions, not as a barrier.

The vast majority of responses to the consultation stressed the importance of a balanced approach to urban transport, respecting the necessary equilibrium between economy and ecology. Accordingly, the Green Paper highlights the importance of an integrated approach for a more efficient transport system. Besides integration of different modes of transport, allowing citizens to optimise their travel time, the integration of different policy sectors – such as transport, energy, environment and regional or health policies – is also crucial. Better co-ordination between land use and urban planning, interconnecting urban and suburban transport systems and co-ordination between the different levels of governance are also part of this integrated approach.

An integrated mobility system should include both passenger and freight transport equally well. In urban environments, freight transport is often seen as a nuisance and blamed for congestion, pollution and noise. However, it is also a precondition for the quality of life of our citizens and for the economic vitality of our cities. Combining the requirements of freight transport with mobility, safety, and health and other citizens’ needs is therefore one of the main challenges that local authorities have to meet.

New culture, new technologies

The Logistics Action Plan which was adopted in October 2007 addresses, within the wider perspective of freight and logistics, the aspect of sustainable urban logistics. It encourages the spread of good practice in urban freight. The Action Plan announced the development of performance indicators for urban freight transport logistics and stressed the importance of deploying information and communication technologies. Indeed, as transport chains are getting more complex, the efficiency of logistics depends to a large extent on the smooth flow of information alongside the actual flow of goods. With the recent approval of the Transport Ministers to go ahead with the GALILEO satellite telecommunication system, new possibilities may open up. By mid 2008, the Commission will come forward with an Action Plan on Intelligent Transport Systems. It will identify the technologies required to ensure integration of vehicles and infrastructure and the necessary interfaces between different modes of transport across Europe.

Clean and energy efficient vehicles

The CIVITAS Initiative, co-financed through the Research Framework Programmes, aims to help cities to achieve a more sustainable, clean and energy efficient urban transport system by implementing and evaluating an ambitious, integrated set of technology and policy based measures. CIVITAS stands for CIty-VITAlity-Sustainability and is one of the cornerstones to support the deployment of clean urban transport, including clean vehicles. The Commission is supporting European research also in the field of hydrogen and biofuels, for instance the ‘2nd generation of biofuels’. The Commission aims to speed up the development of hydrogen technologies and launched in October 2007 a Joint Technological Initiative.

In order to further promote sustainable transport and to improve air quality, the Commission adopted in December 2007 the proposal for a Directive that aims to promote clean and energy efficient vehicles. Its aim is to reduce energy consumption as well as CO2 and pollutant emissions from road vehicles. Citizens living in urban areas will be the major beneficiaries of these measures. The proposed Directive introduces environmental aspects into public procurement of vehicles and transport services by requiring that lifetime costs for energy consumption as well as for CO2 and pollutant emissions are included as award criteria. The application of these criteria will first be optional, then mandatory from 2012. Over the long term, the Directive is therefore expected to promote a broader market introduction of clean and energy efficient vehicles and to reduce their costs through economies of scale. This will also improve energy efficiency and the reduction of CO2 and pollutant emissions from the entire vehicle fleet in Europe.

Paying for mobility and access control systems

When it comes to financing sustainable mobility solutions, all parties involved have a role to play, including users. Pricing of infrastructure use has become a reality. Authorities are looking at charging schemes in urban and long distance transport as a means not only to finance infrastructure and protect the environment, but also to manage traffic demand, both geographically and in time. In a number of cities, urban charges and access control systems have proven successful. There is however one main concern: With an increasing number of charging schemes or environmental zones now being established in different Member States across Europe, there is a risk of creating a fragmented internal market. Harmonisation and standardisation of access criteria and control systems at European level could help avoid new ‘border lines’ across Europe. This year, the Commission will report on the Eurovignette directive and on the perspectives of internalising external costs. The Commission has just recently released a handbook on existing studies on external costs in the transport sector, preparing the ground for efficient and fair pricing of transport services. Interoperability is one of the key elements of attention, since important decisions on road pricing strategies are already being made in several Member States. The Commission is monitoring these developments.

Next steps

With all these initiatives, the Commission intends to lead the way towards a new culture for urban mobility. It aims to find a balance between a better quality of life and a healthy environment for citizens throughout Europe, while ensuring a vital economy. Therefore, the next step is to draw up an Action Plan on Urban Mobility in the autumn of 2008. It will present proposals for concrete actions, in order to foster sustainable development through sustainable mobility in cities and towns.