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Urbanisation

Cities are hugely popular and will continue to be so in the future, as population grows. Citizens have easy access to work, learning, healthcare, food, shops, and all sorts of social, cultural or sports activities. But are cities really delivering these promises?

The growth of cars in the past 50 years and the adaptation of the infrastructure to this dominant mode of transport, have transformed our cities into urban areas with a low quality of life: air pollution, noise exposure, car crashes, congestion are threatening the vibrant city life. And the growth of cars comes at huge social, economic and environmental costs. 

Turning point: back to liveable cities

However, a turning point may be reached. More and more cities are investing to transform back to more liveable urban spaces, and cycling and walking are part of a cost-efficient solution. We move away slowly from owning a private car towards shared mobility and the cycling share is growing in most European cities.

Successful strategies 

Currently implemented measures in many European cities, to return to more liveable cities with more cyclists include:

  • Fewer cars : quieter and cleaner streets are more attractive to visitors and provide a vibrant local economy. Discourage car use by introducing congestion charges (London, Stockholm, Milan) or higher parking fees, etc.
  • Fewer lorries: trucks are a real threat to cyclists, they can be replaced by CycleLogistics. Deliveries by (cargo) bike can take care of 50% of all motorized private and commercial trips.
  • Dedicate public funding for cycling infrastructure: especially on busy roads, it is recommended to provide physically separated bicycle lanes for cyclists and safe junctions. Good bicycle parking facilities are also part of necessary infrastructure.
  • Lower speed limits (read more about Traffic calming practices) 
  • Public bike-sharing works well to reintroduce the bicycle in the city (Paris, Brussels, Warsaw) and complement public transport
  • Effective intermodality planning (facilitate commuters’ travel by allowing bikes on public transport, install bike hire and repair facilities at public transport hubs) 
  • Promotion campaigns for cycling and walking: create a positive culture about cycling, for example during the European Mobility Week. The benefits of cycling are 20 times bigger than the risk of bad health caused by accidents or air pollution.

 

Combining these strategies will be a key in offering a real liveable cities that are ready to fulfill their promises to the growing population. 

Philippe Crist, OECD: “One single mode of transport will not be sufficient to fulfill our needs for access. We need more efficient, smaller and fewer cars, high quality public transport and we need to reconfigure cities to support walking and cycling. cycling will be essential in this mix to move freely and easily.”

What does the EU do on (cycling) mobility?

Traditionally, European transport policy is meant to foster cross-border long-distance mobility. For example, the EU co-funds the development of a TransEuropean Network on Transport (TEN-T) for highways, railways and waterways. ECF is working hard to get cycling included in the TEN-T Network. Additionally, the EU provides transport infrastructure funding (from its Regional and Cohesion Funds). 

Competence on urban mobility is limited by the subsidiarity issue and much considered as a local competence. Nonetheless, as transport and mobility problems are common to most European cities and negative externalities trans-boundary, the European Commission has come up with an Urban Mobility Action Plan in 2009. 

The White Paper on Transport (2011) identifies climate change as the fundamental challenge of the transport sector. Transport needs to de-carbonise. The Commission wants to achieve these goals primarily by technological means. The paper also has some notions on demand management and modal shift, but fails to set any targets regarding passenger transport. Consequently, the proposed measures to achieve a behavioural change are rather weak.

The White Paper on Transport will be reviewed in 2015 (mid-term review) and ECF will work hard to influence the take up of modal shift towards active transport modes.

Regarding road safety, the Commission envisages for the first time “Vision Zero” by 2050. The White Paper reiterates the priority of last years’ Policy Orientations on Road Safety 2011 – 2020 on “Vulnerable road users” by “encouraging the establishment of adequate infrastructures”.

Watch a video of the DG Mobility and Transport of the Commission here.

What is ECF position on cycling mobility?

Investing in cycling is a win-win-win situation: The Charter of Seville summarises in a nutshell all the benefits of cycling. ECF presented the Charter during the International Transport Forum (ITF) 2011 in Leipzig to the transport ministers of the OECD countries.

ECF’s main target is more and safer cycling in Europe. According to Eurobarometer, 7.4 % of European citizen used the bicycle as their primary means of transport in 2010. By 2020, we want to see the level of cycling at 15% of the modal split. At the same time, the risk of a serious or fatal accident should decrease by 50 %: There is ample evidence to suggest the theory that cycling gets safer the more people do it (Safety in Numbers). More than 50 European cities support officially these targets by having signed up to the Charter of Brussels, among them capital cities like Madrid, Athens, Helsinki and Copenhagen.

Achieving these goals will need a multitude of actions by all government levels: European, national, regional and local. The key is to civilize our roads by reducing demand for individual motorized transport and effective speed management: 30 km/h should be the standard speed limit in built-up areas, allowing largely for a shared use of the road infrastructure by motorized transport users and cyclists. It speaks for itself that traffic codes need to be enforced by the police, and infrastructure should be adapted accordingly in order to steer behaviour.

Therefore, the EU must provide more funding for cycling infrastructure than it currently does. ECF’s demand is to invest 10% of all transport infrastructure funds on cycling. As EU Members States need to co-finance EU investments, the EU needs to set incentives favouring infrastructure projects e.g. by setting higher co-funding rates for cycling infrastructure than for highways. Improving infrastructure is key in making cycling an enjoyable and safe activity to do. The Netherlands, with arguable the best cycling infrastructure worldwide, has a cycling modal share of 27 %. With 50 % of all car trips being shorter than 5 km, there is a lot of potential across Europe to achieve similar modal shares as well.

ECF believes that EU needs to do much more on cycling. As it misses an overall strategy, most of its activities remain patchwork. Several EU Member States have adopted Cycling Master Plans, giving a major push to cycling. The EU should follow suit.

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