UITP, the international association of public transport, presented during Rome congress its last version of Mobility in Cities Database (MCD), gathering 120 mobility indicators in 50 cities across the world.
This important source of information for actors of urban moblity analysed major urban trends for the period 1995-2001 and concluded that:
– Car equipment have been significantly raising over this period (+11%)
– In parallel, public transport networks have been extended
– Urban sprawling has been increasing with a density of urban area falling by 6% in 6 years
– During the period 1995-2001, we witnessed a stable modal share of public transport in urban journeys, a growing modal share of private car and a decreasing modal share of walking and cycling Comparisons between cities allowed the identification of best practices in the field of policy measures able to help maintain and increase the modal share of public transport regarding parking policy, quality of service, commercial speed, coverage of service.
Socio-economic considerations, including cost of operations, energy consumption and external costs are useful to assess the total cost of public transport for the comunity.
Comparisons and analysis led to three recommendations to decision makers:
– Control urban sprawling through adequate planning
– Better balance the use of modes of transport through smart charging / use of space / infrastructures
– Support public transport through sustained investment and establishment of transport authorities with extended responsibilities The Database will be released in Autumn 2005.