EC of Regions Says Transport Policy Not Working
Colin Black
Director at Mayer Brown | Transport and Development Planning | Policy Advisor | Strategy and Growth | International Keynote Speaker | Business Transformation | Mentor
The “EU regions urge adequate funding for sustainable transport”. I grant you on the face of it this is not a particularly catchy headline, but nonetheless it is highly significant that the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has officially expressed its concern at the lack of investment by the EU in the transport sector.
It highlights just how very little progress has been made towards achieving long-established policy objectives for sustainable transport.
The CoR is particularly concerned that the Juncker plan will siphon off EUR 2.7 billion "when the budget is already too small".
The CoR Regions regrets the EU's "clearly inadequate investment" for a sustainable transport system. It emphasises that transport is a key part of the EU's economy and that it must continue to be a major European policy.
The CoR points that this is needed to make the European transport sector more competitive. Even the relatively simple things are progressing painfully slowly, for example most Member States still do not have a national system bringing together all predefined transport timetables in operation. Having this could make the use of public transport much more appealing to travellers.
Equal attention must be given to achieving as stronger modal shift from road to urban public transport, since it can have the" strongest immediate impact" on environment and on life quality of citizens, especially in the most densely populated regions of the EU.
Finally, the CoR stresses the importance of further development and use of environmentally friendly methods of transport because of the impact on transport on air pollution.
It is astonishing how there can be so much agreement about what should be done, but at the same time so much inertia to get on and do it.
Associate Director at Turner & Townsend
9 年Graham - you are probably not aware but ABA were recently commissioned by the City Council to review the Area Strategy for the City. Fully agree with you that the proposals for walking and cycling proposed by the County are just not ambitious enough for Oxford as a world class city. Many other aspects of the strategy are also not fully thought through or again ambitious enough.
Graham Paul Smith, Urban Design
9 年Shame How the lowliest engineer can prevent change to active modes. It's the mind that needs to change. Even in Oxford, Transport and Planning conspire to diminish any new opportunity for active travel. Some ￡0.5bn of new investment has little or nothing for enabling cycling, and proposals for a number of city streets are mealy-mouthed about whether cycling is to be allowed, in future. Lots of Cycle-wash, but 'you have to realise, buses are more important'. So proposals for the future LTP4 suggest bendy-buses, known to be a massive problem for cycling. Hey ho, so it spins on.