Overview
CIVITAS (City – Vitality - Sustainability) is a European Commission (Commission) initiative to promote cleaner and better transport in cities. Through the CIVITAS Initiative, the Commission aims to generate a decisive breakthrough in clean and better urban transport by supporting and evaluating the implementation of ambitious integrated and sustainable urban transport strategies that make a real difference for the mobility and quality of life of citizens.
Under the umbrella of the CIVITAS initiative, five European cities were clustered in the TELLUS project: Rotterdam (the Netherlands), Berlin (Germany), Göteborg (Sweden), Gdynia (Poland) and Bucharest (Romania). Within the TELLUS project 48 demonstration measures were implemented, which varied in number and differed widely regarding contents, type and underlying policies. Particular local circumstances, specific city characteristics as well as needs expressed, problems faced and priorities given shaped the selection of a specific set of innovative transport measures in each city.
The TELLUS project set itself ambitious transport-related, environmental and societal objectives to be reached after four years (2006). Moreover the project formulated target quantifications also for 2010. This orientation towards objectives emphasised the process character of the project not ending with its financial assistance but bringing effects for the city beyond this phase.
The specific objectives of the project were to:
- increase the modal share in favour of public transport;
- increase public transport use;
- reduce road casualties and injured people;
- reduce congestion;
- reduce car kilometres;
- increase bicycle kilometres;
- reduce air pollution and noise to levels below national and EC directives;
- reduce NOx emission from heavy traffic;
- reduce traffic related CO2 emissions and energy use;
- improve intra-organisational co-operation at the city level;
- achieve extensive political and public awareness for TELLUS;
- improved public-private co-operation.
Each city implemented a set of measures. There are no two cities that had exactly the same mix of measures. The number and spectrum of measures differed from city to city according to the focus identified as relevant for the respective city and the city’s role within the CIVITAS-Initiative (leading cities and followers). Rotterdam implemented 26 measures, Berlin 10, Göteborg 8, Bucharest 4, and Gdynia implemented only 1 measure.
The TELLUS demonstration measures were not an isolated attempt to improve the living conditions of the citizens, but they were integrated into the cities’ urban transport policies and plans. In general, the focus of the TELLUS project was on translating urban transport policy into practical implementation of innovative measures, whereas ‘innovative’ is understood in the city-specific context. However, not all measures were concerned with implementation, but some aimed at preparing the ground while others supported strategies and measures by developing a concept to be implemented later and/or through a different scheme. Out of the 48 TELLUS measures 28 were aiming at direct implementation, 17 at concept development and implementation, and 3 measures developed concepts only.
Funding
Results
This form reports on the TELLUS results relating to the CIVITAS policy field “Collective Passenger Transport” according to the demonstration site (Berlin, Bucharest, Göteborg, Gdynia, Rotterdam) and measure. If you are interested in the TELLUS results relating to other CIVITAS policy fields, please see the form "TELLUS (Overview)" available on the TRKC website to identify the exact name of the policy field and search the corresponding form on the TRKC website.
1) Berlin (Germany).
- Future Management of urban public transport.
Description.
The objective of this measure was to probe new procedures for the modernisation of the organisational and financial frameworks for future oriented public urban transport under the future conditions of liberalisation and competition.
In order to fulfil its objectives, the measure was designed to consist of three different yet interrelated parts. In the first part, a management business game was to be conducted with the aim of identifying the roles and options for actors in the transport market when undertaking the task of improving public mobility services and efficiency. For the second part, it was planned to define realistic and innovative quality standards based on recent European research work. As main outcome it was intended to define a set of quality assurance indicators, which then was to be demonstrated in different public transport situations and different modes of transport (metro, tram, bus, commuter train). Finally, in the third part an analysis of how public transport firms learn in the process of fundamental transformations was to be undertaken. The focus of this part was set on benchmarking of organisational learning in public transport companies.
Results.
Since the three parts of the work package were carried out in consecutive order, each part built on the experiences made and the findings generated in the subsequent part. Therefore, the initial contents of parts 2 and 3 were altered as a reaction to the issues and problems identified as most pressing. Consequently, this meant the abandonment of the initially planned development and demonstration of a quality assurance system as well as the issue of organisational learning. Instead, part 2 focussed on the instrument of functional performance descriptions as a basis for tendering
Technical Implications
None
Policy implications
The policy implications according to the demonstration site (Berlin, Bucharest, Göteborg, Gdynia, Rotterdam) and measure are as follows.
1) Göteborg (Sweden).
- Environmental optimised ferry shuttle.
Recommendations for other cities or companies investigating the possibility to construct an environmentally optimised ferry:
- review the costs at an early stage. Make sure there is sufficient funding for the project;
- investigate other means of public transport and make sure there are no better options than ferries;
- investigate if the existing infrastructure is sufficient.
2) Rotterdam (The Netherlands).
- Public transport over water.
It is recommended to replace the boat engines by clean and more silent engines. It is also recommended to create some shelter on the landing stages in order to improve passengers’ comfort, especially during bad weather conditions. In order to attract more passengerws signposts could be placed in the area around the river banks.