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news
EU flag 2"First time in history" EU prioritises cycling in major overhaul of urban infrastructure
The European Commission has proposed an overhaul of urban infrastructure which would prioritise cycling and walking to aid the EU's net-zero goal by 2050.
The significance of the plans was summed up by the European Cyclists' Federation, which said it is "the first time in history" the Commission has prioritised investment in active travel as the "backbone of urban mobility".
Although still to pass, if approved the Efficient and Green Mobility package would require the 424 largest cities in the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) to form sustainable urban mobility plans based around active travel by 2025.
It is an unprecedented level of backing to active travel, according to the Cyclists' Federation, and the European Commission said it hoped it would see transport emissions cut by 90 per cent.
At the heart of the TEN-T overhaul is focusing on public transport, walking and cycling as the backbone of urban travel, while also increasing long-distance rail routes.
It is hoped the EU can reduce fossil fuel vehicle use, ease congestion and reduce pollution while also contributing towards its decarbonisation goal of becoming a net-zero continent by 2050, and to reduce emissions from cars by 55 per cent by 2030.
The EU has already tripled its spending on cycling and walking in recent years. Between 2007 and 2013 the EU spent €700 million on cycling and walking initiatives. This figure had more tripled to €2 billion between 2014 and 2020.
"As the experiences of many European regions show, the implementation of ambitious cycling policies is one of the best responses to the twin challenges of climate change and public health that the world is currently facing," the European Cyclists' Federation said.
"More people cycling means lower greenhouse gas emissions, lower noise levels and better air quality, as well as greater physical activity for citizens and hence much better personal and public health."
Speaking about the latest plans, Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans explained: "Europe's green and digital transition will bring big changes to the ways we move around.
"Today's proposals set European mobility on track for a sustainable future: faster European rail connections with easy-to-find tickets and improved passenger rights support for cities to increase and improve public transport and infrastructure for walking and cycling, and making the best possible use of solutions for smart and efficient driving."
Dan is the road.cc news editor and has spent the past four years writing stories and features, as well as (hopefully) keeping you entertained on the live blog. Having previously written about nearly every other sport under the sun for the Express, and the weird and wonderful world of non-league football for the Non-League Paper, Dan joined road.cc in 2020. Come the weekend you'll find him labouring up a hill, probably with a mouth full of jelly babies, or making a bonk-induced trip to a south of England petrol station... in search of more jelly babies.
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32 comments
The cynic in me is still thinking this is way too little, way too late to address climate catastrophe.
Meanwhile, here in the UK the media is fully mobilised against Active Travel and the Govt. just pushes the buck onto local councils who are mostly incompetent when designing infrastructure (there are exceptions).
I'd be impressed if our Govt. made a bold move such as removing the fuel duty freeze, but even that seems very unlikely.
That is a bold statement, what exceptions?
There must be some - has Boardman put any in Manchester yet?
I was about to reply but the more I think the less confident I am. I'll have to go and survey the latest servings by Edinburgh council around the Picardy Place gyratory and down the tram route extension to make sure that they haven't made these self-defeating in the end. Unfortunately given the standard of the competition I can't claim this as a local speciality.
Norwich has one recent. Just one. But they just made a very expensive roundabout alteration which was 60% and is now 100% bicycle unfriendly.
The good (not protected but better): https://www.norwichcyclingcampaign.org/cycling-the-newmarket-road-cycle-...
The bad: https://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/traffic/grapes-hill-roundabout-reva...
I share your cynicism. You would think that cities like Athens would need little additional incentive to combat the already evident effects of climate change. Other than turning up the air conditioning.
Athens needs an enormous kick up the @ss to do something about the traffic and traffic-related pollution issues that bedevil it. Athens has enormous 'car -is-king' problems that infuriate me daily. It's a horrible place to cycle; streets are jammed with inconsiderately-parked cars, pavements are impassible for the most part, the few cycle paths that exist are crumbling and used as off-street parking by entitled drivers, 90% of drivers openly use their mobile phones while driving and cyclists are next-to-invisible on the roads yet no-one acknowledges that there's a problem. Once outside the city the cycling in fantastic though, and drivers are usually more considerate. Besides which, the weather outside of July and August, along with the landscape, make up for the tribulations.
I'd love to see Athens forced into some action by the EU.
If this government lifted the fuel duty freeze it would only be to line their own pockets.
Now that's the kind of cynicism I can get behind.
I suspect that there's lots of interested motor lobbyists and "donations" that would make a fuel duty thaw impossible for politicians (likely not Green ones, I hope).
Not sure about that, unless by embezzlement, however they hardly need to raise fuel duty to do that as we have seen.
As HP points out it is perfectly believable that they line their own pockets by not raising fuel duty
In addition as taxes/duty has at least 2 supposed ends (raising funds and changing behaviour) it could be argued that 1 out of 2 ain't bad. For a working example see teh single-use carrier bag charge, where the fee goes to the retailer.
I'm not sure about lifting the fuel duty freeze. It obviously works if you simultaneously improve public and active travel otherwise it just hits the poorest the hardest. As we know the global issue is with the carbon footprint of the richest. An immediate ban of new cars with CO2 emissions > 130g/km potentially has a better impact and you can reduce this further year on year.
For what it's worth I would make outdoor heated swimming pools illegal. Massive carbon footprint and exclusively for a minute percentage of the the population.
I saw an estimate that the freeze has "cost" the Treasury more than £100bn, so surely some of that money could have been used to help the poorest?
or to improve public or active transport provision
Well active transport provision pays for itself pretty quickly with improved population health, reduced pollution etc.
Absolutement mon frere, mais il usually stymied par lack du l'argent pour cost upfront.
The "but it will hit the poorest hardest" argument is worth examining.
Whatever changes are made normally hit those really struggling harder than those who aren't. Maybe we have two questions here then:
a) Do we need to make urgent changes around sustainability (and liveability)? If so we should start.
b) Given (a) how can we make the endpoint and the transition fair - indeed attractive? "Cake tomorrow and jam this afternoon" is more likely to motivate than handing out hair shirts.
There's nothing stopping us making a more equal society at any time. "The rich are always with us"...
Our "poorest" are often rather priviledged compared to the global average in many ways. That obviously doesn't stop them being in a miserable position. However if we need to look more globally at how much resources we use and how we distribute them this is important.
Finally - is this actually being used as an excuse to allow the better off to avoid any change which might reduce their living standards? We often see this from people who are not disadvantaged and normally don't seem to be terribly concerned to change the conditions of those who are. Bit like the sudden "selective concern" around LTNs / cycle lanes inconveniencing the disabled and blocking ambulances.
Banning outdoor heated swimming pools would probably have little direct climate impact relative to a e.g. small squeeze on car use. (Worth a quick calculation though...) Going beyond that point it could have value as a political statement. I suspect the same reasons which lead to their widespread adoption would see some other potentially ecologically unsound fad appearing in their place though.
Yay!!!
Oh, wait, we left the EU, didn't we...
Sh!t.
Youre joking right ?
I personally am loving this year's new series, guys! I I know some will say it's jumped the shark but I feel that now we've broken the fourth wall this can only get better.
The irony is that Fartage himself is vigorously opposed to active travel and his latest grift focuses very much on opposing cycle lanes.
You'll never guess who is on BBC's Question Time this week; again.
Nick Griffin?
Actually, Nick Griffin's appearance on QT revealed him for the thick racist that he is and destroyed what little was left of his reputation. Thing is, the other guests and the audience have to be free to challenge. That never happened with Fartage's appearances during Brexit. The frog-faced clown was on a dozen times or more and not a single pro-EU MEP got invited.
Was there ever a Hitler parody of dimwit right wing populist Farage, like the excellent one which included similarly disposed Griffin?
Isn't he already a self-parody?
Nah, too reasonable, and less damaging.....
What's that? About his twentieth appearance, despite not even being an MP?
QT used to be a respected programme. Just a clown show these days.
Mate, most things about Britain are a clown show these days, which is why I no longer live there!
I completely disagree with that - clown shows are often organised
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