estonia-2030_en

4Good, convenient mobility facilitiesImproving mobility of people and goods is important both nationally and in terms of linking Estoniawith the external world. Transport is a support system that enables the preservation of settlementand the utilisation of space.Transport systems need to be structured in a manner that ensures the facilities for living and thereduction of distances in time and space in the greenest manner possible across Estonia. The maintask is to ensure the availability of jobs and services also where settlement density is low, by meansof creating frequent, convenient and sustainable mobility facilities in the necessary directions at theappropriate times. Any solutions are to be guided by the daily mobility requirement and combinevarious mobility modes.In the EU transport policy, importance is attached to the improved merger of the formerly nationally-centrednetworks into a single EU network and to the external connections of the EU to othernations. Due to the growing transport flows, the depletion of infrastructure volumes and the exacerbationof security and environmental problems, the EU wishes to make its transport system moreefficient and sustainable.Providing Estonia with better links to the external world is one of the main prerequisites to increasingthe nation’s competitiveness. Fast and frequent connections to the rest of the world will bring Estoniacloser to important centres across space and time, create opportunities for cooperation andprovide new development paths for the entire nation.The planning of transport networks for Estonia as a small nation strongly affected by its external linksand transit should align mobility facilities and needs at the local, regional, national and internationallevels, addressing these networks in an integrated and linked manner. Developing fully internationaltransport corridors will also make it possible to increase the nation's internal cohesiveness andregional balance. For this, that which is the most important for the nation – new air, water and landinfrastructure, to be reconstructed – needs to be defined.Estonia has been a nation with a rapid proliferation of cars, and any changes in this indicator aredifficult to predict for the next few years. Therefore, it would be expedient to identify solutions toalleviate the adverse effect of car usage. Environmental requirements and the development of technologyare changing the utilisation of passenger vehicles – less polluting means of transport (electric,hybrid cars and others) are gaining popularity, and the need to promote state-of-the-art solutions (forinstance, smart transport systems (ITS) 6 ) for organising traffic is increasingly important.6 Smart transport systems combining advanced information-processing applications, communications, technologyare management strategies that improve the safety, capacity and efficiency of a transport system.30