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*While the share of renewable varies largely throughout the Member States, it is overall still very low.
*There is a strong '''reliance on road transport'''. In 2014, passenger cars contributed to over 70% of the European passenger transport overall<ref>EEA. (2016). Term 2016: ''Fundamental changes needed for sustainable mobility.'' Retrieved from https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/term-2016-fundamental-changes-needed. </ref>
*At the moment, '''aviation''' is estimated to accounts for 4.9% of man-made global warming. It is, however, the faster growing and at the same time the least efficient mode of transport . <ref>European Federation for Transport and Environment AISBL. (2017). ''Aviation.'' Retrieved from https://www.transportenvironment.org/what-we-do/aviation</ref>.
*Today, 78% of European citizens live in cities<ref>Market Place of the European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities. (2017). ''Cities - key for Europe.'' Retrieved from https://eu-smartcities.eu/about/european_context</ref>. The GHG emissions from '''urban transport''' constitute a large share of GHG emissions and many cities reliable heavily on road transportation.
'' 'Lack of mobility is inextricably linked to social disadvantage and exclusion.' ''<ref>European Parliament / Legislative Observatory. (2016). ''2016/2327(INI) - 20/07/2016 Non-legislative basic document.'' Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/summary.do?id=1468976&t=e&l=en </ref>
Identifying the main links between accessibility to transport, diversity and social mobility allows to understand the sociological aspect of the topic. The fact that mobility is connected to many fundamental aspects of an individual’s life, lays at the basis of these considerationconsiderations. Generally, low access to transportation threatens to limit a person’s opportunities to '''access health care, education and jobs'''. It is therefore that mobility is such a relevant topic for society and that barriers to the access to transportation are so closely tied to '''social inequality'''.
To a large extent, inequalities in the access to mobility stem from the varying '''user costs''' for different modes of transportation: Faster modes such as cars or trains are more often more expensive that slower modes such a walking or cycling. This is especially the case for '''rural areas''', in which transportation infrastructure is often insufficient. There, individuals without private cars such as young, elderly or unemployed, are particularly vulnerable to the lack affordable mobility options<ref>The Telegraph. (2014). ''Rural communities more isolated as transport forgotten''. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/10569800/Rural-communities-more-isolated-as-public-transport-forgotten.html</ref>. The problem is, however, also increasingly important for '''urban areas'''. According to experts, there is and has been an overemphasis of “higher speed” in urban planning, meaning that the transportation infrastructure would be mainly designed in a way to respond for a growing demand of faster transportation. Thereby, the aspect of “high density” seems to be neglected. In such an approach, there is a stronger focus on transportation responding to the growing travel demand as a tool to achieving social justice, ensuring that transport is affordable, easy to access for all parts of the society<ref>Litmann, T. (2017). ''Evaluating Accessibility for Transportation Planning''. Retrieved from http://www.vtpi.org/access.pdf</ref>.
===European States and Local Authorities===
Transport is a policy area in which both the EU and the Member States legislate. '''National Governments''' therefore play a key role in making policy decisiondecisions, infrastructure investment investments as well as implementing respective EU legislation. National approaches vary in many aspects, with some Member States being more ambitious in shifting towards sustainable transportation than others.
Often, '''cities and local authorities''' are responsible for urban planning and transport infrastructure. While measures taken by different cities vary largely<ref>EPOMM. (2017). ''TEMS - The EPOMM Modal Split Tool.'' Retrieved fromhttp://www.epomm.eu/tems/result_cities.phtml?more=1</ref>, '''sustainable urban transportation concepts''' include the establishment of public space for low-emission mobility including cycling and walking as well as accessible public transport. There has been both governmental and non-governmental efforts to foster '''cooperation and exchange''' of best practices among cities. On a European level, these include EPOMM <ref>EPOMM. (2017). ''Overview.'' Retrieved from http://www.epomm.eu/index.php?id=2663</ref>, Smart Cities and Communities<ref>European Commission. (2017). ''Smart Cities and Communities.'' Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/eip/smartcities/</ref> and EUROCITIES<ref>UROCITIES. (2016). ''about EUROCITIES.'' Retrieved from http://www.eurocities.eu/eurocities/about_us</ref>. To a much smaller extent, there has also been effort for global cooperation of cities such as Action Platform: Urban Electric Mobility Initiative (UEMI)<ref>UEMI. (2017). ''about UEMI.'' Retrieved from http://www.uemi.net/uemi.html</ref>.
===Aviation===
In 2016, the '''International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)''', an a UN specialized agency, agreed on to a plan to reduce aviation emissions and cap them at 2020 levels. While all other transport sectors are excluded from it, aviation is part of the [[Emissions Trading Scheme]] (ETS). While its scope has been limited to flights within the EEA until 2016 in order to support the ICAOs efforts for a global agreement, it is now being discussed whether this limited approach should be continued.
==Key Conflicts, Opportunities & Challenges of (Potential) Measures==
Some factors can be identified that appear to hamper the exploitation of already existing opportunities, such as new transportation technologies, or mobility concepts. These include:
* '''investment in certain infrastructures''': In 2014, the investment into road infrastructure accounted for 52% of European investment in transport into road infrastructure.Such a high investment is levels are argued to generate new demand, reinforcement of car-dependency, hindering investment in more sustainable transport.
[[File:Investment in transport infrastructure - EEA 2016.png|thumb|Investment in transport infrastructure - EEA 2016]]
===Possibilities for change===
A variety of different actions is discussed as carrying the potential to create sustainable and accessible transport. In the following, includinga few options are presented:
*'''Taxation''' constitutes a possible tool to encourage the development and usage of more sustainable alternatives, as for example fuel in the aviation sector. An '''internalisation of external costs''', such as environmental destruction, into the price of transportation could affect consumers decision in their mobility choices. However, high pricing of certain modes of transportation could also increase social injustice in access.
*Measures to '''lower the purchase costs of electric vehicles''' could increase sustainable private mobility, might however have a possible rebound effect resulting in higher emissions and energy-usage.
*'''Shared mobility''', including car sharing, on-demand ride services, ride-sharing, and bike sharing, might be increasingly provided by local authorities or private companies such as Car2Go or DriveNow in. Thereare, however are , concerns about a possible reverse effect of car sharing, with a decline in public transport ultimately leading to higher emissions<ref>The Guardian. (2017). ''What if Uber kills off public transport rather than cars?'' Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/13/uber-lyft-cars-public-transport-cities-commuting</ref>. Additionally, there is a controversy about unfair competition of sharing mobility services, with several countries having banned Uber<ref>The Independent. (2017). ''Uber: Which countries have banned the controversial taxi app.'' Retrieved from http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/uber-ban-countries-where-world-taxi-app-europe-taxi-us-states-china-asia-legal-a7707436.html</ref>.*'''Public-private partnerships''' promise a more competitive, higher quality and seamless transport. *'''Multimodality''': the combination of different modes of transport bring hope for a reduction of road transport in urban areas, offering even more public space for zero-emission mobility. At the same time, shared mobility can supplement public transport in more peripheral areas, that would otherwise be inaccessible.
*'''Information and communications technology (ICT)''' enables '''demand responsive transport services''', which could provide more efficient and accessible public transport in rural areas<ref>Ringalink. (2017). ''Demand responsive transport.'' http://www.ringalink.ie/demand-responsive-transport.html</ref>.
*Large potential is seen in the investment into '''technological transportation innovations''' such as '''autonomous vehicles (AVs)'''<ref>Government Technology. (2014). ''How Transportation Technologies Will Change Everything.'' Retrieved from http://www.govtech.com/transportation/How-Transportation-Technologies-Will-Change-Everything-.html</ref> or even more visionary projects like the hyperloop<ref>TechChrunch. (2017). ''Hyperloop Transportation Technologies plans to connect all of Europe, starting with the Czech Republic.'' Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/18/hyperloop-transportation-technologies-plans-to-connect-all-of-europe-starting-with-the-czech-republic/</ref>. There are, however, controversies about these transportations, including concerns about the environmental meaningfulness, security, economic feasibility<ref>The Guardian. (2016). ''Hyperloop and our misplaced love of futuristic technology.'' Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/aug/14/hyperloop-elon-musk-futuristic-technology-transport</ref>.
Global megatrends such as population growth and urbanisation give rise to new challenges for passenger transportation. On the one hand, there is a need for transportation to respond to the mobility needs of people and become more accessible. On the other hand, the transport sector generates environmentally harmful emissions which need to be reduced. For the TRAN committee, this poses questions such as:
*Do accessibility to transport and sustainability oppose each other?
*Are they mutually exclusive and require a trade-off or can they be combined?
Current research suggests that the future development developments under the existing legislation are insufficient in achieving policy goals to reduce GHG emissions. Taking the model ‘’Avoid, Shift, Improve’’ in account: *How explicit and restrictive should measures be in evoking to evoke behavioural change?
Having these general considerations in mind, the topic can be viewed on the local, national, European and global policy level, with a variety of governmental and non-governmental actors involved. Moreover, it appears that there are ample opportunities for an improvement of transportation, including technological innovations, ICT, and shared mobility. Still, there seem to be factors that hinder the exploitation of such opportunities.
*What are the best tactics to most effectively address transportation on these different policy levels? *What role should the EU play in the global scope of the problem?
*What roles should local authorities, Member States and companies play?
(the entire report is rather long but at least scrolling through it is highly recommended)
EEA (2016): An A selection of various charts: https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators#c5=transport&b_start=0
*'''Media coverage:'''