Towards a new culture for urban mobility
The Committee on Transport and Tourism adopted an own initiative report by Reinhard RACK (EPP-ED, AT) on ‘Towards a new culture of urban mobility’, in response to the Commission’s Green Paper on this issue.
The committee believes that the EU should define an overall strategy on urban mobility leading to a reduction in the high use of private cars and promote modal shift towards sustainable modes of transport, to support the EU's commitments on environmental protection and on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
MEPs believe that action must be taken at European level in the following areas and call for:
- the development of an integrated European global approach to urban mobility which will serve as a common frame of reference for European, national, regional and local players (municipalities, citizens, businesses and industry);
- reliable, comparable data on all aspects of urban and suburban mobility to be gathered and effectively disseminated, taking into account future changes in the framework conditions (e.g. demographic changes, economic growth, climate change);
- a complete list of Community rules currently in force and an evaluation of the implementation and application by Member States of European legislation affecting urban transport, in particular public passenger transport;
- a list of the local initiatives to tackle some of the problems referred to in the Green Paper (e.g. road charging, green zones, safety on public transport, protection of cyclists etc.);
- a "European Platform for Urban Mobility" or any other effective forum that brings together all data, best practices and policy information on urban mobility in a comprehensible way.
The Commission is called upon to work with Member States to overcome national barriers to urban schemes without however proposing EU legislation, which could limit the local flexibility that is required to solve mobility problems.
Furthermore, MEPs call for specific European rules and/or guidance for the standardisation and harmonisation of: the design and functioning of green zones and road pricing; the technical and organisational requirements for the interoperability of the various modes of passenger and freight transport, the mobility of people with disabilities, the elderly, people with young children and the least affluent; the improvement of road safety; the accessibility and interoperability of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) technologies for EU-wide applications.
Lastly, they call for suitable measures to promote the exchange of best practices, particularly concerning: flexible road use concepts; the adoption of multimodal transport (road, rail, water); innovative solutions for efficient goods transport, particularly for local goods distribution; guidelines for an environmentally aware public procurement policy; improvements in clean public local passenger transport; the promotion of sustainable mobility chains: walking-cycling-carsharing-carpooling-taxi-collective/public mobility; better organisation of short-distance transport; the introduction of parking guidance systems.
Noting that the EU can make an important contribution to financing urban passenger and freight transport measures (for example by using the Structural and Cohesion Funds), MEPs call on the Commission to honour its responsibility in this respect.
The Commission is called upon to draw up specific market economy-oriented instruments to create a balanced and favourable framework for sustainable mobility in urban centres. In the context of the forthcoming review of the EU budget, MEPs call for the financing of projects from EU funds to be more closely linked to conditions and requirements relating to sustainable transport and environmental protection in future. They consider this to be a suitable instrument for promoting environmentally friendly and widely accessible transport concepts.