Public Transportation: Safe and Sustainable
Urban mobility is the key to attaining the objective of sustainable development. Mobility has a high socioeconomic value since it puts into communication people, goods, and ideas over a tightly defined territorial space.
The urban space, concentrated as it is in terms of population, production and trade, is critically dependent upon the mobility factor and thus must find a balance between the private benefits of mobility and the general collective welfare, which must be the basic point of reference in the road toward sustainability. The mobility of goods and people across the city has a huge collective impact, but depends on strictly individual choices. Mobility thus becomes critical, when its non-self-regulating nature becomes manifest.
In cities, atmospheric and acoustic pollution is a source of growing preoccupation for its effects on human health. Urban traffic is the first cause of both forms of pollution. In Europe, the combustion engine accounts for 40% of CO2 emissions and 70% of other gaseous pollutants, as the Green Book of the European Commission, in pleading for a new culture of urban mobility, reminds us. Furthermore, one deadly accident out of three occurs in an urban area, and weaker road users such as pedestrians and cyclists tend to be the victims. It is thus necessary to rethink urban mobility, by optimizing all modes of transport and integrating the various forms of public transportation (train, tram, subway, bus) with the individual ones (on foot, bicycles, cars, scooters). This must start by putting the system of public transportation at the center of urban mobility, so to maximize the use of the supply afforded by public transit.
Promoting sustainable urban mobility means implementing measures that reduce private traffic and increase collective transit, by offering a spectrum of innovative and efficient solutions that meet the diverse individual needs of mobility, and so reduce ingrained habits and the propensity to use the private car. Last but not least, public administrations must integrate mobility with urban planning. They must plan for development areas and services of collective mobility and provide negative incentives with respect to car driving, while at the same time making sure that the city and its wealth of services, cultures, and opportunities is fully accessible by all.