The debates

 

10am - 11.30am

The UITP’s European Union EBSF Project will draw to a close in August 2012. The UTP is one of the project’s 48 partners. Working on the basis of a shared vision of the expectations for bus systems in cities, the partners have devised shared technical solutions. These have resulted in life-size tests in a number of towns and cities: Bremerhaven (Germany), Rouen, Brunoy and Paris (France), Budapest (Hungary), Göteborg (Sweden), Madrid (Spain) and Rome (Italy). This roundtable debate provides an opportunity to report on the work done in the EBSF project and look to the future.

 

2pm - 3.30pm

For a number of months now, GART and UTP have been discussing modal transfer and how to achieve economic equilibrium for public transport. Organising authorities and French operators have come up with a set of joint recommendations to encourage a switchover from individual to public transport and rebalance the urban transport economy.Issues include how to alter the public transport offering in terms of coverage, frequency and fleet management, promoting use through appropriate fare structures, increasing attractiveness and improving commercial speed and parking facilities.

 

4pm - 5.30pm

Although street parking charges play a major role in transport policy, there is as yet no satisfactory way of organising the system and sharing out the related responsibilities. In France, on-street parking charges are the responsibility of local authorities, while related offences are a matter of criminal law. Decriminalising parking offences should go hand in hand with decentralisation in order to allow local authorities to implement a more effective sustainable development policy and achieve genuine modal transfer.

 

10am - 11.30am

Whether they are travelling to a city centre, the suburbs or the country, passengers use a range of local mobility services: buses, coaches, trains, bikes, DRT and so on. A number of factors affect consumer choices in this respect; offerings can be structured in a number of ways, and the way mobility services fit together plays an important role. All this and more determines the quality of intermodal offerings in France and in other countries. Cooperation between mobility stakeholders appears to be the best recipe for clarity and efficiency throughout the mobility chain. This session will examine the current state of play and future prospects.

 

2pm - 3.30pm

Systems in place for funding public transport are creaking. In a difficult economic environment, organising authorities have to face up to the challenges of sustainable mobility even as they seek to balance budgets. Sustainable and long-term ways of funding mobility need to be found. One option might be adjusting fares. In France, the ‘transport contribution’ provides most of the funding for urban transport but is widely criticised; it could however be broadened to fund transport up to the regional level. Integrating environmental taxation into the equation is another issue.

 

3.30pm -4.30pm

Without a doubt, delivering goods is the type of transport that poses the biggest problems in urban operations today. One quarter of greenhouse gas emissions are directly attributable to urban logistics. As with mobility issues for people, research is currently looking at where traffic originates and how it is generated. The search is on to find the right technical resources to bring down the environmental footprint of this type of transport and choose the right kind of vehicle fleets for the future. Urban transport authorities might benefit from legal incentives to improve the organisation and flow of goods within city centres. Organised in association with the Club du Dernier Kilomètre de Livraison ("Last Mile Delivery Club"), this roundtable debate will seek to address these issues.

 

10am - 11am

With the development of technology pushing digitization, public transport users can choose between a whole variety of media for their travel tickets: travelcards, USB sticks, bank cards, contactless mobiles, MMS messages and so on. Transport ticketing systems need to change; at the same time, transport authorities’ organisational structures for ticketing are becoming more complex. This session looks at the technical, standards and organisational issues facing transport authorities.

 

11.30am -

12.30 pm

Passenger information is a key component of transport services and mobility in general. It is vital when it comes to encouraging modal transfer and facilitating the daily routine of commuters. They expect to be able to benefit from information which is real-time, customised and reliable. This involves changes to cultures and practices alike, with the implementation of dynamic information systems that are simple, accessible and uniform. Issues up for debate include the large number of players in the market, the development of applications for mobile devices, Open Data, and the ownership of data.