By Troels Werner Christensen, 9. October 2009
Last week, The European Commission presented an action plan for city traffic covering 20 specific suggestions for encouraging local, regional and national authorities to reach their objectives of sustainable city traffic.
The suggestions will contribute to the solution of problems with congestion, traffic accidents, air pollution and energy consumption. Among other things, the Commission suggests (action 8) focusing on education and information in order to prepare the citizens for choosing a more sustainable means of transportation and the Commission will therefore support campaigns directed at this.
One of the six themes in the action plan has been dedicated to greener city traffic (theme 3) and here the Commission suggests continuing supporting research and development of cars with low or no carbon emission, including electric cars. Furthermore, the Commission is this year launching an internet guide informing of clean and energy-efficient cars. This includes legislation, market surveillance and support systems, etc.
- We’ve just submitted a hearing statement to the Commission on the EU's future transport strategy and one of our suggestions was in fact to provide the citizens with more information on electric cars and others technologies, chief consultant Lærke Flader says.
- It’s nice to see that the EU is thinking along these lines. I call on the EU to consider strengthening the information offices, in addition to the campaigns, for the purpose of propagating sustainable transportation, Lærke Flader says.