Skip to main content

Transport MEPs call for more efforts in ensuring sustainable urban transport

Ambitious emissions ceilings and a timeframe for real-world emissions testing should be set, say transport MEPs in an own-initiative report on sustainable urban mobility voted on this week by the Transport and Tourism committee. Ensuring reliable public transport and promoting car-sharing as well as ICT to help reduce the need for journeys to work would help reduce traffic congestion and cycling and walking should be encouraged, they say. European transport MEPS believe the Commission should set effectiv
November 12, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
Ambitious emissions ceilings and a timeframe for real-world emissions testing should be set, say transport MEPs in an own-initiative report on sustainable urban mobility voted on this week by the Transport and Tourism committee. Ensuring reliable public transport and promoting car-sharing as well as ICT to help reduce the need for journeys to work would help reduce traffic congestion and cycling and walking should be encouraged, they say.

European transport MEPS believe the Commission should set effective and ambitious emission ceilings under the National Emission Ceilings directive (NEC), ambitious car emission performance standards and a clear timeframe for putting in place real-world driving emission testing for private vehicles.

In an own-initiative report on sustainable urban mobility voted on this week by the Transport and Tourism committee, they say cities could support shifts towards alternative means of transport and less-polluting vehicles. Electric vehicles and vehicles powered by alternative fuels are important to the reduction of emissions in cities, they add, and encourage the EU countries together with the industry to develop relevant refuelling and recharging infrastructure.

The report proposes that use of public transport should be promoted and ICT technologies and tele-working could help reduce the need for journeys into work; car-sharing, ride-sharing and car-pooling services make better use of existing resources and help to reduce cars in cities.

MEPs also encourage EU members states to improve connectivity of suburban parking spaces with rail or public transport services through initiatives such as park and ride options and encourage local authorities to provide support and/or incentives to freight operators to make urban freight transport more sustainable.  They also recommend the use of non-motorised transport and conditions for walking and cycling. The Commission and EU countries could raise awareness for cycling and alternative transport modes and cities could organise bicycle sharing systems.

MEPs call on the Commission and the Member States to support research programmes on new technologies, new business models, and new integrated sustainable urban mobility practices and urban logistics and to promote and encourage best practice exchanges and guidance in order to tackle urban mobility challenges and facilitate the transfer of skills and technologies in the field of sustainable mobility.

They also call on the Commission and the Member States to put ambitious measures on sustainable urban mobility high on the agenda of the COP in Paris in December 2015.

Related Content

  • Revealed: future of mobility in Hamburg
    October 7, 2021
    From 11-15 October, the ITS World Congress will present a myriad of innovations
  • Integration of travel payment and information closer to reality
    January 7, 2013
    Integration of travel payment and information is bringing utopia in management of transportation as a single intermodal system is closer to reality. Larry Yermack writes. For decades, transportation planners and ITS visionaries all believed that transportation would not be fully optimised until it could be managed as a single intermodal system. Relationships between modal operators left this more in the dream category than reality. However, the steady march of advances in payment technology have brought us
  • To charge or not to charge, that is the question
    January 26, 2018
    Alan Dron looks at why congestion charging and other similar schemes are so controversial in North America. In August, Andrew Cuomo, governor of New York State, described congestion charging for the city as “an idea whose time had come,” according to the Bloomberg wire service. In October, he announced a ‘Fix NYC’ advisory panel to study methods of easing congestion on the city’s streets. Although Cuomo did not specifically mention congestion charging when setting up the panel, he said it would study
  • World Economic Forum unveils SEAM library
    July 31, 2019
    The World Economic Forum (WEF) has built a policy library and gathered modelling tools to help decision-makers implement Shared, Electric and Automated Mobility (SEAM) options. The SEAM framework is a set of sustainable mobility policy guidelines aimed at helping cities alleviate congestion and reduce pollution. Maya Ben Dror, WEF project lead, says decision makers can use the framework to “pick what is projected as impactful and feasible” and “design it to maximise emissions reduction as well as soci