Skip to main content

UITP reveals promising growth in public transport modal share

Back in 2009, the public transport sector set itself a goal: double its market share worldwide by 2025 to make cities more liveable and more productive. Today, in 2015, on the occasion of the biennial UITP World Congress & Exhibition in Milan this week, UITP presented a report to illustrate the urban policies that are moving cities closer to that goal. In a report presented at the plenary session of the World Congress, UITP research points to a general increase in public transport modal share thanks to
June 10, 2015 Read time: 3 mins
Back in 2009, the public transport sector set itself a goal: double its market share worldwide by 2025 to make cities more liveable and more productive. Today, in 2015, on the occasion of the biennial UITP World Congress & Exhibition in Milan this week, UITP presented a report to illustrate the urban policies that are moving cities closer to that goal.  

In a report presented at the plenary session of the World Congress, UITP research points to a general increase in public transport modal share thanks to efforts to boost supply, control private car use and increase urban density. This is particularly noticeable in cities in developed countries.

The growth has been particularly marked in Oslo, London and Paris where there has been more than a 10 per cent increase in modal share, whilst cities such as Prague, Berlin or Rome show a reversal of a previous trend whereby public transport’s market share had been decreasing. There are also positive developments in cities with already significant modal shares, such as Vienna, Geneva, Singapore and Hong Kong. Other cities such as Munich and Stockholm have taken great strides in boosting walking and cycling with a marked decrease in private car reliance.

In developing countries, however, whilst efforts are being made to increase public transport supply, there is also increasing motorisation due to a general lack of measures to manage private car use, meaning that globally, there is still much work to be done to fulfil the goals of the UITP strategy.      

Professor Lewis Fulton from the University of California Davis commented on the report during the plenary session at the congress and presented his conclusions on the economic implications of a high shift to public transport scenario.

“Our strategy to double the market share of public transport worldwide by 2025 is about cities: making them better places to live and work,” said UITP secretary general Alain Flausch. He went on to say that the data shows that cities with a higher public transport market share use less of their urban space for transport, releasing space for recreational as well as economically-productive functions. He said the results so far show great cause for optimism but also highlight the work that still needs to be done in terms of increasing urban density and managing private car use in order to reach UITP’s ambitious 2025 objective.

Related Content

  • 12th ITS Asia-Pacific Forum focuses on cooperation
    March 14, 2012
    In April this year, ITS Malaysia will host the 12th ITS Asia-Pacific Forum and Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur to further advance ITS cooperation and coordination between member countries in the region. In 1999, just a year after construction of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers was completed, Kuala Lumpur hosted the 3rd ITS Asia-Pacific Forum. A great deal has changed in the intervening 13 years, not least the scope and importance of the Forum’s programme. The 12th running of this event, being held from 16-18 Ap
  • IBTTA 2011 Annual Meeting highlights developing trends in tolling
    January 26, 2012
    Alain Estiot, chief meeting organiser of this year's IBTTA Annual Meeting and Exhibition, talks about hot topics for discussion. The IBTTA's 79th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, which takes place this year in Berlin in September, will once again take many of the developing trends from around the world and look at their effects on the tolling sector. Host organisation Toll Collect's Alain Estiot, chief meeting organiser, says that the event has to be viewed against a backdrop of major global change.
  • China plans more ITS deployment despite economic slowdown
    March 30, 2017
    The Chinese government is turning to ITS to help solve urban traffic congestion in the majority of its large cities. Eugene Gerden reports. China is investing an estimated 3.5bn yuan ($551 million) per year in ITS and while the country’s current economic strategy may see this decline, the government plans to continue active development of the national intelligent transport system.
  • Environmental impact assessments - where now?
    February 1, 2012
    Peter George, MVA Consultancy, questions the future direction of environmental impact assessments