4 Urban Transport in See Region

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Regional Meeting on Sustainable Transport Policies in South Eastern Europe

21-22 June 2007, Budapest, Hungary

“Key problems and priorities in urban

transport sector in SEE countries from

NGO perspective”

Zvezdan Kalmar, CEKOR, Serbia

Serbian coordinator for CEE Bankwatch Network



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SEE Development Watch

organizations included in this

presentation

“Zelena Akcija” Zagreb

• “Eco- sense” Skopje

• “CEKOR” Belgrade• “Za Zemiata”Bulgaria



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Some of the common problems in

Urban Transport in SEE countries• Car culture is taking a strong grip of society.

• Need for giving priority to sustainable transport solutions

• Environmental laws passed, but there are problems with

implementation of SEA, EIA, laws on protection of air,

ground, water…

• Unsustainable strategies of transport or Lack of strategy

and tendency towards large prestige- “hardware” projects

• Lack of strong Legislative and Banking- Financial back up/interest for sustainable projects



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General Situation in Transport

sector in Serbia• Outdated and insufficient transport strategy

• Slow and insufficient implementation of EIA and SEIAlegislation

• In 2006 the government has approved the “strategy” for

highways development.• Strategy for sustainable development in early phases

• Laws on protection of air, water etc. are under essentialreconstruction

• Huge lacks exist in institutions capacities enforcing thelaws on protection of air, soil, water, noise

• Restructuring of publicly owned Transport companies



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Situation with Urban Transport inSituation with Urban Transport in

BelgradeBelgrade• Explosion of usage of private

cars• Problematic rail- urban transport

connection

• Transit thorough Belgrade

downtown• Insufficient condition of public

transport• Lack of any usage of bicycles• Hard life of pedestrians

• Lack of political will for introducing of measures for sustainable transport



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Some of the solutions for

transport situation in Belgrade

• “Soft” measures for reduction of number of cars onthe streets

• Absolute priority of the public transport in Belgradestreets/ PROTECTED YELLOW LINES

• Smaller and “smarter” vehicles in urban transport• Cycling and walking• Cheep taxi/ “closed” zones

• Park-and-ride system from the edges of the city

• Better fare system• Modernization of electrical vehicles in urban transport• Light rail system• Belgrade Bypass and Inner ring road

• Better incorporation of rail system in Urban system



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Traffic congestion in Belgrade-

Slow public transport because

lines are occupied by cars



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General measures that could positively

affect transport situation in Belgrade

• Full implementation of polluter pays principle

• Internalization of externalcosts of T. sector

• Implementation f Aarhusconvention in Transportsector

• Implementing Kiev protocolon SEIA and ESPOOconvention

• Stricter use of economicinstruments andenvironmental taxes for urban transportimprovements



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Some of the problems in Urban

Transport in Zagreb- Croatia• Slow public transport because lines occupied by cars.

• Public underground garages in the centre of the city,plan includes an area where it is forbidden to build publicunderground garages

• It is really important that bike paths should be on roads,not taking space away from pedestrians

• Ideology of the “car based life”

• Mixing of commercial/ business interest for public

interest• Wasting of energy and resources on Promotion of huge

infrastructure projects



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10 Measures for improvement of

Urban Transport in Zagreb• Improvement of urban/ suburban rail traffic

• Improvement of tramway traffic

• Improvement of bus traffic

• Improvement of cycling

• Improvement of Traffic signalization and regulation

• Upgrading of streets

• Cheaper taxi service

• Synchronization of different modes of urban transport

• Urban landscape policy positive for urban transportdevelopment

• Additional measures



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Skopje Urban Transport Situation

• The air quality is very poor in the city• Problems with big congestion• Most of the citizens do not want to use the public transport

as their service is not reliable and the condition of thebuses is below all the standards

•The city has only buses as a mode of public transportation• There is no regulation for heavy vehicles

• New environmental law was passed, but the water andnoise legislation is still waiting for approval

• SEIA bylaws are not in place yet, most likely they will be

introduced by 2008• At the moment the Skopje city ring (25 km, around 100million EUR) is under construction. The project is financedby EBRD and EIB

• In general the situation in the public transport has not

changed since 2004



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Final remarks• Need for enforcing EIA, SEIA and other environmental measures

(protection and development)• Strengthening NGOs for taking part in planning processes• Opening of planning processes (voice of people)/ for different

approach• Need for Management and technical assistance to governments in

planning of sustainable transport

• Establishing financial, legal frameworks for investment insustainable urban transport

• Ideological, educational, political changes are needed for change indirection of sustainable transport sectors

• Need for change in transport policies of IFIs toward financing-developing- backing up sustainable transport sectors in SEE

countries• Protection of public interest from quasi public/ corporative interest



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Solutions are on us

Thank You!!!

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4 Urban Transport in See Region