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 “Access Restriction” 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) Bucharest (Romania).
- Parking restrictions in central area.
Description
Bucharest has been confronted with the increasing number of private cars in the past 15 years. This tremendous expansion of cars and reduced facilities with off street parking spaces accompanied with low implementation of traffic policies are important elements of the city traffic related problems.
The overall objectives of this measure are to promote the provision of multi-storey parking facilities, to use the road network in the central area more effectively by improving the traffic conditions and to promote public transport use by reducing the number of vehicles parked on the streets.
The measure focuses on the city historical area and combines parking restrictions and provision of a parking facility. The construction of a parking house outside of this area with about 1,000 parking spaces offers an alternative to further car access restrictions deployments. The experience of process implementation will be used in expanding the parking projects to city level.
Results.
The measurements on vehicle speed or congestion level before and after parking construction showed small impacts. Even more, on some of the measured indicators the level after parking constructions was sensible higher than before. This situation came as a result of increased vehicle ownerships, which generates mostly more traffic not only in Unirii Square area but in the whole city. In this respect the measurements showed that a new parking facility implementation as a singular measure could not bring sufficiently benefits without complementary measures.
The air quality measurements carried out in the vicinity of the new parking facility focused on the monitoring of CO emissions between years 2000 to 2005. Despite the increase in the number of cars, the CO observations
Technical Implications
None
Policy implications
The policy implications relating to the CIVITAS policy field “Access Restriction” according to the demonstration site (Berlin, Bucharest, Göteborg, Gdynia, Rotterdam) and measure are as follows.
1) Bucharest (Romania).
- Parking restrictions in central area.
In order to assure the success of large investments such as parking construction the following issues might be taken into account by different actors:
- to obtain the political support and also to have the certitude that projects will be sustained in case of political changes;
- to assure the communication between partners involved in project;
- to assign enough time for user awareness campaign before project implementation;
- Public – Private partnership could be an important alternative when the funds procurement becomes problematic;
- to assure the integration with public transport service in order to maximize the benefits;
- the construction of new facilities for public transport is required, as the perception of reduced mobility could appear at the citizens from respective areas.
2) Gdynia (Poland).
- Transforming the city centre into clean Urban Transport Area.
- The city of Gdynia used modern solutions to make the trolleybus traffic smooth and might be interesting for other cities.. The installed traction allows for the much faster and more reliable traffic than it was before. A number of remarkable features of the trolley bus as a mean of urban transport are ecological soundness, flexibility and cost effectiveness. Trolley bus systems do not pollute urban air and they are silent. Compared to trams the buses are more flexible in using urban road space and more cost-efficient due to low costs for infrastructure;
- To attract people to spend their leisure time in the city centre it is very important to address different stakeholders using a combination of measures such as wide pavements comfortable for pedestrians, implementation of access restrictions by parking arrangements as well as bicycle holders;
- Implementation of access restrictions to establish clean, environment friendly zone in the city centre should be widely accepted by the common public to avoid social resistance