Sustainable Passenger Transportation in Urban Areas

By Silvia Di Ponte and Katja Kavcic

Learn, Apply, Communicate

Web conference June 11th, 2009

IIIEE, Lund University, Sweden

Points of presentation and discussion

EU initiatives and policies in the field of urban transport

Best practices

The state of passenger public transport in Ljubljana

 Actions that could help to create more sustainable mobility for passengers in Ljubljana

Urban traffic is responsible for 40% of CO2 emissions and 70% of emissions of other pollutants arising from road transport.

Throughout Europe, increased traffic in town and city centers has resulted in chronic congestion, with the many adverse consequences that this entails in terms of delays and pollution.

Every year nearly 100 billion Euros, or 1% of the EU's GDP, are lost to the European economy as a result of this phenomenon.

European towns and cities are all different, but they face similar challenges and are trying to find common solutions.

EU on Urban Mobility

Legislation and Initiatives

Legislation

Legislative initiatives have been developed, sometimes in a rather fragmented way

Green Paper: Towards a new culture for urban mobility [COM(2007)55]

No Action Plan yet

Initiatives

European Platform on Mobility Management

European Local Transport Information Service

Civitas Initiative – Clean and Better Transport in Cities

ManagEnergy – Directorate for Energy and Transport

Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign

European Mobility Week

EXTRA – Connecting transport research solutions to European Transport Policy

Best practices

Bicycle Routes in Graz 13 main bicycle routes (83 km) were defined in Graz,

during the Bicycle Focal Point 2007/2008. They consist of tempo 30-zone streets, tempo 50 streets and bicycle tracks. (120km bicycle tracks already exist)

They claim to be the fastest connection between the inner city and the periphery and suburbs of Graz, for work, leisure and shopping traffic.

The project is more an awareness campaign than an infrastructural campaign: the aim is showing people the fastest connections

What’s new? - priority in maintaining them- signposted with new, bigger and innovative signs- just painted signs on the pavements to attract users’ attention

- they have been included in the new bicycle map

Now the rout look like a star. The next objective is make them look like a spider web

bikers are not simply tolerated but strongly desired

London Congestion Charge

Central Zone since the 17th February 2003. Western Extension 19th February 2007

Charge: 8£ daily (about 9.5€), from 7.00 to 18.00, Monday till Friday.

Payable:online,SMS,phone,post,shop.Otherwise: £120 Penalty Charge.

Discounts: residents, alternative fuel and electric vehicles, disabled drivers, motorbikes…

Setting up cost was £200 million. Cost of running the scheme is around £115 million a year (1) Benefits since the scheme started (2) :

- Traffic entering the original charging zone: 21% lower than pre-charge levels (70,000 fewer cars a day) + Traffic entering the Western Extension: fallen by 14% (-30,000 cars a day)

- 6% increase in bus passengers during charging hours

- 12% increase in cycle journeys into the Western Extension

- £137m raised, in the financial year 2007/08, to invest back into improving transport in London

The “PediBus” idea for Terranuova (Tuscany)

Who is involved: children of Primary School

Where: Terranuova Bracciolini, 11.181 inhabitants.

What: PediBus (FootBus). It consists in walk with children instead to drive them to the school. An adult should collect them along a stated pathway and take them to school

How much Km by car could be avoided?

Yearly child’s responsibility: 200 days x 4km = 800 km

300 children’s responsibility: 240.000 km

240.000km = 35 travels Roma-New York

Why: Even if it’s a small project, in a small scale, it could be useful in *reducing the amount of Km run by cars, thus air pollution (PM10, NOx…CO2) and car traffic in the small centre,* educating children and *making people more sensitive to environmental issues.

How: The pathway should be constituted of 2 major lines of about 1 Km (see the chart), starting from the 2 main ends (following the longitudinal length/axis of the town) and arriving to the school ( approx in the middle).

Ljubljana urban region

Ljubljana Urban Region (LUR) The City of Ljubljana population:

270.000

LUR (Ljubljana urban region) population: 500.000, which is ¼ of Slovenian population

In last 20 years the number of LUR inhabitants grew twice as fast as Slovenian average

No. of migrations per day in LUR: 100.000 (90% of daily migrations: by car)

LUR region: good access by car, very bad access by public transport

Internal characteristics of the region - transport

Strengths

Ljubljana lies on the crossroads of the European transport corridors 5 and 10.

Road and railway infrastructures are more or less already constructed for long-term needs of the region.

A high concentration of population situated along transport corridors enables the development of public transport.

flat land - good possibilities for cycling and walking.

Weaknesses

In the last 10 years the use of passenger cars has increased to the level of Western Europe. Thus air pollution with photochemical smog increased, and traffic congestion has not decreased essentially despite the construction of highways.

By using personal transport the use of public transport is decreasing in the region and with it the supply of services.

year

1987

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

other

waste

agriculture

fuel in households

fuel in industry

indusrty

energy

transport

Annual greenhouse gas emissions by sector in Slovenia (= 1000 tons) in CO2 equivalents

Source: TGP, The Environmental Agency of the Republic of Slovenia, April 2008

Research on public

transport use in Ljubljana

2003 2004 2005 2006 200780

85

90

95

Number of passengers using a bus in 1000

1. Research of urban passenger transport during the European Week (questionnaire for passengers on public transport):

• Buses should be of better quality (air-conditioning, lower emissions and noise) • Frequency should be improved • Drivers should drive more carefully and be more friendly

Source: Statistical Yearbook of Ljubljana, 2008

2. Public opinion survey, conducted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana on different locations of the corridor in Ljubljana (October and December 2008)

Means of transport used:

33,2 % of the respondents used their car for going to work or school, 11,4 % are walking and 9,8 % are using the public transport (bus). Of those using a car 75,8 % are even driving alone.

A desired change:

strongly in favor of the construction of parking facilities P & R

establishment of a unified e- ticketing

implementation of passenger information services on electronic displays on bus stops

hybrid bus implementation is supported most by respondents

Why is passenger public transport

(PPT) in Ljubljana undeveloped?

The last spatial plan for Ljubljana is 15 years old

The spatial plan is a document of the municipality and is a basis to regulation and development of the city.

Problems with developing a plan:

absence of regional planning

flexibility of current decision-making

lack of state funding for transport projects

Lack of government interest. Words of Mr. Drasler from the Ministry of Transport: ‘The oil and transport lobby is very strong’

The City of Ljubljana is preparing a new Municipality spatial plan

It consists of Strategic spatial plan and Implementation plan. Drafts are done, Strategic spatial plan has already been assessed (specific comment on parking spaces)

The priorities of the new spatial plan are:

Ljubljana has to retain quality of the environment

promoting the urbanization within the motorway ring

extend the main roads

open up new economic and commercial zone by the railway

What has been done?

Civitas

Urbana (directed into payment policy)

Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana urban region is the holder of the project "Professional base for managing public transport in the region", financed by the 24 municipalities of the Ljubljana urban region and co-financed by the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund.

The Ministry of Transport has been working on Integrated Public Passenger Transport (IPPT) project in the Republic of Slovenia since February 2007.

Ministry of Transport

CIVITAS-ELAN project

The mayors of the cities of Ljubljana, Gent, Zagreb, Brno and Porto have agreed to a common mission statement:

“To ‘mobilize’ our citizens by developing with their support clean mobility solutions for vital cities, ensuring health and access for all.”

18 common headline objectives

Among them:

Implementing effective, high quality mobility solutions

Planning intermodal infrastructure with public participation

Charging for access

Improving mobility management

Making walking and cycling more attractive

Establishing a mobility dialogue with the citizens

Enhancing traveler information & ticketing

Expected CIVITAS results:

Among them:

Target Congestion and related pollution as most crucial problems

Improving public transport quality (especially demanded by citizens)

Increasing the share of walking and cycling

Supporting freight innovative delivery solutions

Implementing innovative demand management

Using of clean and energy-efficient vehicles

URBANA

Uniform City Urban card (URBANA) is contactless smart card for residents and visitors of Ljubljana

It will be used for payment:

Urban bus, parking spaces provided by the City of Ljubljana, funicular railway

City libraries

cultural events museums

Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana urban region – RRA LUR

Priorities

Development of PPT of high quality and improvement of citizens’ mobility

C of traffic congestion

Improvement of traffic safety

Emissions and noise reduction 

Guidelines

Establishment of Special regional regulation body

Common interest (on a state level)

Intermodal transfer sites

Connecting with non-motorized transport

Organizational measures

Integrated Public Passenger Transport (IPPT)

Has been done

Tariff system in the Republic of Slovenia, June 2008

Integrated ticketing database, October 2008

Will be done

The standardization of timetables at bus and rail transport, October 2010

Information portal for travelers in the IPPT, April 2011

Establish a comprehensive image of the integrated public transport, June 2010

Information / promotion / education of the public on September IPPT, 2009 December 2012

Ministry of Transport

What is planned?

On a government level

Congestion charge (legislation is being prepared at the Ministry of Transport)

Higher tax on a purchase of a new or old car

Higher tax on fuel and Heavy Vehicle Fee (HVF)

On a City level

Integrated public transport and ticketing with P+R terminals

Congestion charge

3 times as many bike tracks as there are now, 70% more pedestrian zones in the city centre, Closing city centre for transport

Hydrogen buses

Recommendations

What needs to be done?

Key steps

1st step: Improvement of the overall availability , quality, accessibility and attractiveness of the public transport

2nd step: Address peoples hearts and minds

How to do it?

The European Union play a facilitating,

without imposing top-down solutions which may not necessarily be appropriate for the diverse local situations

?