Urban Transport Priorities and the European Unions support to cities through CIVITAS Jerome Simpson, Senior Expert, Green Transport 22 nd Sept, 2011 Slide title Its urban environments are increasingly challenged: currently they host 75 percent of the EUs population while by 2050 they are expected to host 84 percent. They are also growing older! Yet the trend remains upwards for passenger cars (a ten percent increase was registered between 2000 and 2008 in passenger kilometres travelled) and heavy duty vehicles (where a 21 percent increase was seen in tonnes of emissions per km during the same period). Among cities biggest challenges are beating traffic congestion and lost time, fuel and GDP, tackling the exceedances of air quality limits while guaranteeing human health and safety. Urban transport accounts for 70 percent of pollutants (mainly PM2.5, PM10, NOx and NO2) and 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2) in the EU today! Europe Today Impact of these local level problems are felt on the global scale (climate change/global warming; health; logistical chain) Slide 2/7 Slide title And theres something called CIVITAS The EUs Response? Its Targets A White Paper (set of proposals): Transport 2050 Freeing cities of conventionally fuelled cars by 2050 Achieving CO 2 -free movement of goods by 2030; Increasing the use of intelligent transport systems; Halving road casualties by 2020, and; Supporting a 50 percent shift of intercity passenger and freight journeys from road to rail and waterborne transport Slide 3/7 Slide title CIVITAS is an EU initiative researching, demonstrating and facilitating practical and policy- related measures that contribute to sustainable urban transport Since 2002, many European cities have benefitted from EU co-funding that helped improve their accessibility and citizens quality of life e.g.; In Stockholm, Sweden, congestion charging reduced city traffic between by 22%, while clean vehicle strategies increased their share of the car-fleet to 8% In Bremen, Germany success was demonstrated in car-sharing where between , the customer base rose 56% to 5,500 users. The target is 20,000 users by In Bristol, UK, freight deliveries to 70 retailers were trialled, then consolidated into a single scheme that saved them time and money, while improving citizen safety and reducing disturbance In 2009, Krakow launched Polands first ever bike rental system. It resulted in 5000 monthly journeys among 4000 users. A significant impact on its 1-2% modal share of 2003 is foreseen. CIVITAS stands for City-VITAlity-Sustainability or cleaner and better transport in cities Slide 4/7 Slide title CIVITAS Facts and Figures To date CIVITAS has demonstrated good practice through 658 measures within 58 cities and through 13 projects It has mobilised EUR 250 million to improve urban mobility and quality of life (72% EC co-funded) The Initiative is online at:through which it promotes the dissemination of good urban transport experiences Its 58 cities are accompanied by a further 150 (e.g.: Tirana, Brussels, Antalya, Athens, Madrid, Warsaw..) who benefit from the accumulated know-how, experience, lessons-learned.. Together they constitute the CIVITAS Forum Network, while every year the cities technical experts and politicians meet to exchange experiences and lessons learned in measure implementation Slide 5/7 Slide title Interested in more on CIVITAS Measures?civitas-initiative.org/ index.php?id=16 Slide 6/7 CITY STUDY TOURS AVAILABLE TOO! Slide title Thank you for your attention Slide 7/7