Changing Daily Urban Mobility : Report of the One-Hundred and Second Round Table on Transport Economics Held in Paris on 9-19 May 1996

Surveys in a number of European towns reveal that no less than 30 per cent of car journeys could be made by some ecological form of transport. Achieving this shift requires a sea change in our thinking. In some towns, for example, efforts to raise consciousness among car drivers have effectively and enduringly changed their behaviour at little cost. If car drivers simply eliminated two car trips every three months, car use levels would be reduced to those of fifteen years ago. Public transport should target a high quality service for which people are prepared to pay. A systematic transport evaluation made prior to all new construction projects would be a means of officially recognizing the importance of the environment to society. Indeed, many options exist for reversing today's trends. {Round Table 102} brings together the leading European experts on these issues, and identifies the key policies for the immediate future that could reconcile towns and transport.