Future European Transport Policy Ignores Bicycles and Powered Two-Wheelers

BRUSSELS, Belgium (January 14) - In its recently published White Paper on European Transport Policy, the European Commission outlines the transport policy for the coming eight years. It envisions a modern transport system that needs to be sustainable from an economic as well as an environmental viewpoint. The Commission wants to achieve this by stimulating rail transport in order to prevent a further explosive growth in road transport. The prominent role that the bicycle can play in the development of a sustainable transport policy was completely ignored by the Commission's White Paper. Personal mobility in the EU has increased from 17 km a day in 1970 to 35 km a day in 1998. That is, according to the Commission, almost exclusively the result of an explosive growth in automobile use. In the past 30 years, automobile ownership in Europe has practically tripled from 62,5 to around 175 million units. Although this trend seems to be slowing down, the number of private cars is still growing by more than 3 million a year. The Commission based its mobility figures only on passenger kilometres (pkm). It goes without saying that the bicycle can never be considered a fully-fledged means of transport such as a car or train if only pkm and not the number of journeys are taken into account. The Commission did acknowledge this: "It should be recognized that the bicycle is still too often neglected as a mode of transport, even though some 50 million journeys (i.e. 5% of the total) are made by bicycles each day in Europe. The proportion is as high as 18% in Denmark and 27% in the Netherlands." After which point the Commission promptly returned to its established position of ignoring the bicycle in its policy proposal. In its response to the White Paper, the European Cyclists Federation (ECF) stabbed at the fact that the Commission is ignoring the bicycle. That is clearly shown by the fact that none of the 60 plus measures that the Commission proposes concerns cycling. That's why ECF has put forward a number of concrete proposals in order to include the bicycle in the measures. The Commission wants to shift the balance between the different modes of transport. In that framework, ECF proposes to set a target for each means of transport -including the bicycle. According to the European cyclists' organization, the bicycle should have a 10% share of all trips by 2010. The European Twowheel Retailers' Association (ETRA) has also sent a response on the White Paper. This is generally in agreement with the ECF position. Nevertheless the trade organization is requesting even more on one point. According to the Commission: "Priority would be given to building infrastructure that encourages inter-modality, especially railway lines, and offers a more environmentally friendly alternative." Here ETRA asks explicitly for positive discrimination of the bicycle. ETRA also pointed out to the Commission that motorized two-wheelers in the White Paper are being equally ignored. (JO)