Action Plan: Urban mobility needs to connect with urban planning!

By Miriam Eisermann on 13 November 2009

“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-

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