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Press release
Urban mobility: more EU funding wanted for inner-city transport systems
Transport - 23-04-2009 - 14:58
Plenary sessions
Plenary sessions
Parliament is urging progress on an EU Urban Mobility Action Plan, originally put forward by the Commission in a Green Paper in September 2007 but taken little further since then.
Sixty per cent of Europeans lived in urban areas in 2005 and that number will rise to eighty per cent in 2020, making urban transport a major component of goods and passenger transport in Europe. A significant proportion of greenhouse gases are generated by road traffic in urban areas.
The aim of the plan is to use EU funding to improve public transport, encourage the use of cycling and walking by developing the appropriate infrastructures such as cycle lanes, improve road safety, reduce traffic congestion through the use of "Intelligent Transport Systems" and develop links between different transport modes and networks through "integrated urban mobility systems" in towns with over 100,000 inhabitants.
Parliament's own-initiative report, adopted today by 324 votes to 11 with 15 abstentions, was drafted by Gilles Savary (PES, FR). The report highlights the need for a charter of pedestrians' and cyclists' rights (similar to the existing charter of air passengers' rights) as well as EU certification of public transport equipment to ensure high safety and environmental standards and access for disabled people.
Urban travel plans would also provide for:
- a mobility diagnostic and mobility indicators and targets, and an assessment of their economic, social and environmental impact,
- a plan for the development and interconnection of transport networks coordinated with the regional transport plan and urban planning policies,
- a plan for the development of soft traffic infrastructure (cycle paths, pedestrian zones) fully integrated with public transport,
- a masterplan for intermodal car parks and exchange platforms,
- a programme for adapting management of urban mobility networks and their interconnections to the needs of reduced mobility users,
- a masterplan for urban logistics, including the possibility of using public infrastructure for freight transport,
- a procedure for direct participation by the general public.
Subsidiarity concerns and funding
The EU needs powers in the field of urban transport policy if it is to achieve its environmental aims and climate change objectives, argues raporteur Gilles Savary.
As regards the sources of funding, the report suggests creating a European financial instrument for urban mobility and drawing money from the EU economic recovery plan. It also proposes that European financing and co-financing in the field of urban transport be made conditional on the existence of integrated urban mobility (urban travel) plans.
REF.: 20090422IPR54181