Urban mobility needs to connect with urban planning!

"Planning for people not cars", is one of the guiding rules of Energie-Cités´ member city of Leicester (UK). How much of this idea is in the EU´s Action Plan on Urban Mobility? Energie-Cités welcomes the recent document as it draws the attention on urban traffic issues. With 40% of greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of pollutants deriving from road transport, targeted measures have been long awaited.

The European Commission proposes 20 actions, which can, indeed, reduce car use and foster alternative ways of transport, especially:

• Promoting sustainable urban mobility plans,
• Better inform about the funding available from the Structural and Cohesion Funds and the European Investment Bank,
• Supporting further campaigns on sustainable mobility behaviour (incl. the European Mobility Week),
• Supporting further research and demonstration projects in the field, e.g. via the CIVITAS Initiative .

Regrettably, though, no clear link is made to urban planning. If we want to organise mobility in a sustainable and accessible way, we firstly need to start with reducing the need to travel through clever spatial and urban planning. Finally, the Commission´s idea to introduce an urban mobility dimension in the Covenant of Mayors is good, but it is nothing very new to Energie-Cités and its members who already develop and implement voluntary Sustainable Energy Action Plans addressing all sectors incl. transport.

Energie-Cités´ full position paper: www.energie-cites.eu/-OPINIONS,10-