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

  • Transport problems need ''strong action from policymakers”
    June 7, 2012
    Taking advantage of the attendance of the heads of ITS Asia-Pacific, ITS America, Ertico – ITS Europe, and ITS Malaysia as the host nation of the recent 12th ITS Asia-Pacific Forum in Kuala Lumpur in April, ITS International initiated a round table discussion on the big ITS issues confronting the individual regions. For such a diverse collection of advanced and emerging nations spanning the globe, in terms of the advancement of ITS, a common single issue emerges above all others
  • Taking the long view of ITS
    March 24, 2015
    Caroline Visser believes the ITS industry must present a coherent case for consideration of the technology to become part of transport policy and planning. As ITS advisor and road finance director for the International Road Federation (IRF) in Geneva, Caroline Visser is well placed to evaluate quantifying the benefits of ITS implementation – a topic about which there is little agreement and even less consistency. She is pressing to get some consistency in the evaluation of ITS deployments through the use of
  • New mobility + public transport = sustainability
    February 25, 2020
    Cities can introduce all the clever new mobility solutions they like – but if they are not linked to public transportation they will not be environmentally friendly, according to new research.
  • Arup’s vision of urban mobility in 2050
    May 6, 2015
    Arup’s vision of the Future of Highways considers a wide range of factors that will impact on mobility towards the middle of the century. In its consideration of the Future of Highways through to 2050, international consultants Arup has taken a broad and pragmatic view of where society is heading and the effects that will have on the transport requirements. In terms of major drivers it not only cites