Interface for Cycling Expertise

Active Transport key in Transforming Transportation

In Washington, on 14 and 15 January the yearly conference on Transforming Transportation has been organized by EMBARQ, this year with the Inter American Development Bank. The first day was devoted to health related issues, in particular air pollution and road safety. Surveys on the negative impact of transport to loss of life, came to the conclusion that the impact of active transport as a contributor to daily exercise is a multiplier of the impact of reduction of air pollution.

The significance of this conclusion in economic terms can be valued against the costs of road safety and air pollution which both already take between 2 and 5% of the GDP of countries. Nancy Kete, director of EMBARQ, concluded there is a need and opportunity to perform health and road safety audits in transport interventions which imply an audit of the way cycling and walking are catered for. She also said that while the impact on the climate of a transformation of transport policies is on the longer term, the impact on safety and health is big on the short term.

Integration of climate and transport policies was the subject on the second day. The results of the latest COP conference in Copenhagen are rather loose but give flexibility to the development of National Appropriate Mitigation Actions on transport for carbon funding. This means that national policies for sustainable transport, including national cycling policies, are eligible for co financing from climate funds. These NAMA’s have capacity building and transfer of technology as important components. The atmosphere during the conference can be expressed in the best way by saying that now the time has come to not only talk about the strategy for Avoiding of Mobility and a Shift to public transport, cycling and walking, but to put this into practice. It is obvious that the Netherlands with their expertise can contribute well to the transformation of the transport policies. Why we should not ignore the significance of transport for climate, has been expressed by a Dutch who plays a key role in the international negotiations, IPCC executive directory Yvo de Boer: “Any serious action in climate change will zoom in on the transport sector.”

Roelof Wittink