Urban Transport

Short history of international action

The terms ‘sustainable transport’ is an almost accidental follow-on to the earlier term Sustainable Development whose origins in turn were the 1987 Our Common Future (1987, World Commission on Environment and Development of the United Nations). In the years following publication of the Brundtland Report, there was considerable discussion of a variety of issues that are part of the sustainable development nexus, but transportation considerations were not in the front line in those early years.

One of the first international organizations to have a closer look at the concept of sustainable transport from the vantage of government policy was a small international working group led by Peter Wiederkehr at the OECD in 1994, that agreed that a new policy approach is needed which places environmental criteria up front along with other policy goals. Recognizing this need, the OECD initiated in 1994 an international project to define and chart a path towards Environmentally Sustainable Transport (EST). The overall objectives of the EST project are to provide an understanding of EST, its implications and requirements, and to develop methods and guidelines towards its realization. The core of the EST approach was to develop long-term scenarios and identify instruments and strategies capable of achieving it. To this end the OECD organized with the Government of Canada the 1996 International Conference: Towards Sustainable Transportation in Vancouver, Canada. One result of this were the 1996 Vancouver Principles towards Sustainable Transportation. (The OECD project shut down its operation in July 2004, though the members of the original working group continue to communicate and collaborate at the specific project and policy level under the leadership of the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Environment.)

Examples

The EU Directorate-General for Transport and Energy (DG-TREN) has launched a programme which focusses mostly on Urban Transport. Its main measures are:

* Clean fuels and vehicles
o Biodiesel
o Biogas/CNG
o Fuelling Station
o Hybrid Vehicles
o Electric Vehicles
o LPG
o Procurement & tendering
o Waterway transport (in DG-TRENs SAVE/ALTENER programme LPG is removed and Ethanol and other biofuels are added)

* Access restrictions
o Access management / Enforcement
o Car Restricted Zones /Living Streets
o Multifunctional areas
o Parking Management
o Pedestrian Areas
o Traffic calming / Speed reduction

* Integrated pricing strategies
o City road pricing
o Integrated ticketing
o Parking Management
o Smart card

* Collective passenger transport
o Accessibility
o Flexibel mobility services
o Intermodality
o Marketing
o Network development
o Park & Ride
o People with reduced mobility
o Public private co-operation
o Quality Corridors / lines
o Quality of service
o Security
o Ticketing and tarification
o Travel information

* Less car intensive lifestyle
o Car pooling
o Car sharing
o Car/ driver licence exit strategies
o Clean and efficient fleets
o Cycling
o Bike sharing
o Mobility management
o Reducing private car use

* Urban Goods Transport
o Clean vehicles / clean fleet
o Distribution scheme
o Fleet management & route planning
o Loading and uploading
o Loading Zone
o Public private co-operation
o Urban distribution center

* Soft measures
o Child / school / student mobility
o Cycling
o Integrated policies /Integrated planning strategie
o Intermodal mobility services
o Mobility center
o Mobility management (for Events)
o Mobility management (for housing areas)
o Mobility management for companies and organisation
o Mobility marketing and awareness
o People with reduced mobility
o User/Citizen Participation
o Walking

* Transport management
o Access management / Enforcement
o Guidance Systems
o Multi modal travel information
o Real time travel information
o Smart card
o Traffic control / management center
o Traffic information
o Vehicle location based services