Public transport needs to be put forward to tackle the urban mobility challenges currently faced by urban mobility. Constructing highways and encouraging car use should not be the priority.
Dynamic, accessible, liveable and attractive urban regions will never be exempted of congestion. Transport strategies should try to deal with congestion management based on cost effectiveness in order to reduce the negative impact that traffic congestion has on passengers and urban citizens.
In the perspective of the same policies, it is expected that all transport activities will continue to grow in parallel with the economic activity. Passenger traffic is expected to increase slightly compared to freight transport (34% by 2030 and 51% by 2050). In the absence of significant strategy changes, the different transport modes would continue to be represented in the same proportion. Road transport would maintain its dominant role for both passengers and freight inside the EU, and cars would continue to represent more than two thirds of the total passenger transport in 2050.
The current situation of accessibility in the EU suggests that there is a strong difference between central and suburban areas regarding connectivity and transport costs. Suburban areas have higher average transport costs explained not only through longer journeys, but also through more expensive and less effective available transport solutions.
Ambitious and visionary strategies are essential to change radically current mobility patterns. The public transport sector has the competence and ambition to improve the urban environment both for citizens and business, as it already does in number of urban centres. To take up these challenges, the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) proposes its members and not only to double the market share of public transport by 2025.
Public transport operators can stimulate the development of their commercial activity by providing a quality service to their customer, but also through innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.
The impact of the financial and economic turmoil revealed a different type of crisis, a systemic crisis, calling for an in-depth change. Currently, as three years ago (when the financial crisis began to spread worldwide), the time is right to trigger a societal change and abandon the car-dependent lifestyle. If organised and well aware of their priorities, public transport operators can play an important role in providing quality services and helping reduce car dependency.
Public transport provides green local jobs. In many cities the public transport network is one of the major employers, and such jobs cannot be de-localised. In Europe, public transport operators alone create 1,200,000 direct jobs and every direct job in public transport is linked to four jobs in other sectors of the economy. Public transport represents between 1 and 1.2% of European Union GDP. Every Euro of value created from public transport is linked to a further value creation of 4 EUR in the total economy, according to UITP data.
A massive shift to public transport and sustainable mobility helps economies to reduce their dependency on fossil fuel and improve their balance of payments.
Photo: public-transport.net
[ by Elena Ilie ]Share on:
