today's facts & tomorrow's trends - SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles ...

transportation prices – a challenge but also an opportunity. Transportation in
Europe today is cheap for users but expensive for society, as prices do not reflect
the true costs. There are, for example, inconsistent taxation rules between
transport modes and fuels between and within Member States. These may
even subsidise environmentally unsustainable choices, with favourable taxation
rules for corporate cars that encourages the use of cars for business (EC 2011b).
A challenge that relates to transportation prices is price tariffs that do not distinguish
among social groups, such as older people and students – which is a
basic requirement for equity in mobility. Social inclusion has to be guaranteed:
new services for elderly people or those with disabilities should be developed
alongside green standards, such as allowing only low-emission cars to enter
city centres or mandatory technical skills training and/or internet access to allow
individual mobility planning.
As shown by Figure 14, the role of private cars has not changed in the past
decade. Cars remain by far the most dominant mode of transport with a share
of more than 72%. While the share of private car use fell by 1% over a ten year
period, this tiny reduction occurred at the same time as a massive 37% increase
in air travel. The increased use of cars has an additional and regional aspect: car
use has been boosted by the integration of the 12 new EU Member States, even
though the average number of passenger cars per thousand inhabitants in these
countries is still only 70% of what is seen in the EU15 (EC 2011b).
Figure 14 Modal split in intra-EU27 passenger transport in 1998 and in 2008
1998
Powered 2-wheelers 2.3%
Buses & Coaches 9.1%
Railways 6.2%
Passenger cars 73.0%
Tram & Metro 1.3%
Intra-EU Air 7.3%
Intra-EU Sea 0,8%
2008
Powered 2-wheelers 2.4%
Buses & Coaches 8.4%
Railways 6.3%
Passenger cars 72.4%
Tram & Metro 1.4%
Intra-EU Air 8.6%
Intra-EU Sea 0,8%
Source: EC 2011b, Eurostat, DG MOVE.
Challenges and opportunities for sustainable lifestyles 65