According to the latest statistics, 80% of European Union citizens live in urban areas, and 40% live in large urban areas of over 200.000 inhabitants. They share in their daily life the same space, and for their mobility the same infrastructure. Public transport, cars, lorries, cyclists and pedestrians all share the same infrastructure. On average a European citizen makes 1000 trips per year and half of these are less than 5 km long. For many of these shorter trips walking and cycling could be a true alternative. Urban mobility accounts for 40% of all CO2 emissions of road transport and up to 70% of other pollutants from transport. One in three road fatalities occurs in cities. Congestion problems, too, are concentrated in and around cities. European cities increasingly face problems caused by transport and traffic.

The car is by far the dominant urban mode, contributing about 75% of kilometres travelled in EU conurbations. Cars cause so much congestion that, in some European cities, average traffic speeds at peak times are lower than in the days of the horse-drawn carriage. Increased car use has been accompanied by safety and environmental problems, as well as by a downward spiral of under-investment in public transport.

Public transport is an important alternative to the car. It plays a major role in the bigger cities where it carries 2.5 – 3 times as many people as private transport. Public transport is also important for an estimated 40% of EU households who do not have a car. Predictions suggest that, without further intervention, public transport will maintain its market share in the next decade only in the larger conurbations where it has a clear advantage in terms of image, reliability and speed.

Road transport is largely oil-dependant and produces the great majority of transport emissions to the air. Urban transport is responsible for around 40% of total road transport carbon dioxide (CO2), emissions. In addition nearly all of Europe’s city-inhabitants are exposed to air pollution levels that exceed EU limits for particulate matter (PM). Substantial progress has been made over the last decade in reducing vehicle emissions, but hotspots continue to be a problem and growing traffic levels are a threat, or may even reverse progress in urban air quality and greenhouse gas emissions.

The question of how to enhance mobility while at the same time reducing congestion, accidents and pollution is a common challenge to all major cities in Europe. Cities themselves are usually in the best position to find the right answer to this question that takes into account their specific circumstances. More than anyone else, city dwellers directly experience the negative effects of their own mobility and may be open to innovative solutions for creating sustainable mobility.

But at the same time, urban transport policy is of increasing importance for the EU. Efficient and effective urban transport can significantly contribute to achieving objectives in a wide range of policy domains for which the EU has an established competence. The success of policies and policy objectives that have been agreed at EU level, for example on efficiency of the EU transport system, socio-economic objectives, energy dependency, or climate change, partly depends on actions taken by national, regional and local authorities.

Existing EU legislation, for example on public service obligations in public transport, air quality and noise and vehicles standards, does have a direct impact on the transport policies of Europe's cities. EU policy and financial programmes for regional development and research provide significant resources for the renewal and innovation of urban transport infrastructures, technologies and services in many European cities.

At their meeting on April 4-5, 2001, the European Union’s Ministers of Transport adopted a definition for what constitutes sustainable transport. The definition adopted by the Minister’s of Transport states that a sustainable transport system is one that:

• Allows the basic access and development needs of individuals, companies and societies to be met safely and in a manner consistent with human and ecosystem health, and promises equity within and between successive generations;
• Is affordable, operates fairly and efficiently, offers choice of transport mode, and supports a competitive economy, as well as balanced regional development;
• Limits emissions and waste within the planet’s ability to absorb them, uses renewable resources at or below their rates of generation, and, uses non-renewable resources at or below the rates of development of renewable substitutes while minimizing the impact on land and the generation of noise.

A Working Group on Sustainable Urban Transport had been set-up by the European Union’s Expert Group on the Urban Environment to contribute to the preparation and definition of the Thematic Strategy on the Urban Environment as outlined in the 6th Environment Action Programme of the European Union. The objectives of the Working Group were to:

• Define the role the EU can and needs to play in order to promote sustainable urban mobility throughout the European Union.
• To propose specific measures and actions that can be taken at a European level (by the EU) to realize the above goal of sustainable urban transport.

The trends in urban transport described in the draft final report of the above mentioned Working Group are grouped under headings, namely trends in:

• Urban development (Sub-urbanisation, Urban density, Spatial structure, location of activities, Urban nodes in a global network)
• Transport (Car ownership, Car use, Public transport, Non-motorised transport, Freight shipments in urban areas (growth of light commercial vehicles)
• Congestion
• Environment and health (Air and noise pollution, Safety, Health)
• Administrative and institutional

The main objectives of the present module are to provide a general overview, definitions, policies, examples of implementation on three topics related to Sustainable Urban Transport, namely:

• Reduction of traffic
• Traffic management (maintenance and building of transport infrastructure)
• Mobility management (influencing mobility patterns)

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