A sustainable future for transport

Date: 4/11/2009

Source: EC Transport

The EC Directorate General for Energy and Transport (DG TREN) has published a communication on a sustainable future for transport. This communication summarises recent developments and current thinking of the commission on the European Transport Policy (ETP).

The communication also attempts to identify transport trends and likely challenges they could pose to society, and proposes some intermediate policy objectives, which could be pursued to address the emerging challenges in the transport sector.

“The ideas put forward in this communication are meant to stimulate further debate aimed at identifying policy options, without prejudging the formulation of concrete proposals in the next White Paper of 2010”.

Ideas put forward in the communication include:

• Transition from an oil dependent transport industry to an electricity dependent one, ensuring that the electricity comes from “green” sources
• Continued emphasis on improvements in transport safety
• Integration of aviation with high-speed rail (passenger transport)
• Realisation of an intelligent and integrated logistics system (freight transport)
• Continued emphasis on developing ITS technologies and utilising Galileo to optimise use of the road network and improve safety.

ITS Radar International will monitor developments

Keywords: Environment, European Commission, Freight, Policy, Safety