Meeting Green Deal goals in sustainable urban mobility pays off, and a lot

The most cost-efficient investments for small, medium, and large European cities to reduce transport emissions of 55% by 2030 and 90% by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.

Analysis by transport modelling experts TRT Trasporti e Territorio have quantified the costs and benefits of the urban mobility transition based on the implementation of three potential pathways to sustainability built on different sets of policy measures in addition to vehicle fleet decarbonisation. These results are applied to different “City Prototypes” which take into account differences in cities based on their size and geographic location.

The results show that cities need to invest more ambitiously if they want to achieve the 2030 Green Deal targets. The report estimates that compared to a business-as-usual scenario, there is a need of extra investments of 86bn in sustainable urban mobility, which will create net benefits of up to €177bn. On average, each euro invested in the transition can generate up to €3,06 by 2030.

The measures with the greatest projected benefit would be the pricing schemes - congestion and pollution charging, parking pricing, public transport integrated ticketing and tariff schemes - for medium and small cities, while Innovative Services solutions - Demand Responsive Transport, autonomous vehicles, Intelligent Transport Systems - would work better for large cities.

This data clearly shows that sustainable urban mobility transformations are future-proof and can generate large benefits for citizens. More funding allocated to improve mobility in cities would not only put us all on the right track to meet transport CO2 reduction objectives, but also directly improve quality of life in urban areas.

Are you looking for specific recommendations on the most effective policy groups to transition to sustainable urban mobility, depending on your city size and geography?

 

Check the full study results here.