Eltis

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), air pollution is currently one of the most significant and progressive risks to human health around the world.

In light of the rapid development of UVARs in the EU, an information tool is considered by the European parliament to be a useful instrument for citizens travelling within the EU.

Consequently, DG MOVE has announced a new preparatory action with the general objective to foster the real-time information of road users about urban and regional access schemes.

The specific objective of this tender is to:

At the closing plenary of the Polis Conference 2019, cities and regions expressed their support for 

Residents in the German municipality of Hart bei Graz can now use a multimodal “tim” node, implemented by the Regional Management Metropolitan Area of Styria Ltd. within the framework of the EU-Interreg Central Europe Project Peripheral Access.

In order to tackle air pollution in the city, the Mayor of London is working to increase the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs). However, as a result of an anticipated increase in the amount of EV charging, it is likely that London will experience an increase in the demand for electricity during peak times. Therefore, the Mayor of London has launched a number of projects to support flexible EV charging in the city in order to reduce the pressure on the electricity grid.

On 15 November 2019, the French city of Lyon launched a new autonomous shuttle service as part of its public transport network. The service is provided by two autonomous, electric shuttles that connect the Décines Grand Large tram station (on line T3) with and the city's football stadium, the Parc Olympique Lyonnais stadium.

The shuttles will form a new line (N1) as part of the 85 route in the city. It is the first time in France that autonomous vehicles will run on public roads in a dense urban environment, operating alongside thousands of other vehicles.

The cycle route network and assisted cycling city bikes for employees of local companies convinced the jury to deliver the Urban Award 2019 for sustainable mobility to the Municipality of Pescara, created by Viagginbici.com and promoted by the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI), Openjobmetis and Fondazione Iseni Y Nervi. The award was presented in Milan, as part of EICMA, the International Bicycle and Motorcycle Exhibition that takes place in the capital city of Lombardy every year.

Berlin has implemented the first of seven planned diesel restrictions, in an attempt to manage its nitrogen dioxide emissions.

The city follows action by other cities in Germany, Hamburg and Darmstadt, which have implemented low emission zones to facilitate compliance with nitrogen dioxide limits. It is likely that additional cities in Germany will implement low emission zones to tackle nitrogen dioxide exceedances. 

Authorities in the city of Warsaw recently revealed a broad range of measures in a drive to improve the city's air quality. The measures were announced by the Mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, during the Warsaw Climate Conference last month.

According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), in 2018, Warsaw ranked as one of the EU capitals with the highest air pollution levels. More than 400,000 premature deaths in the EU I n 2018 resulted from air pollution according to another recent EEA study. 

On 10 October 2019, Google released a new digital tool (‘EIE’) that has given certain European cities the ability to measure levels of air pollution. So far it has been made available in Dublin, Birmingham, Manchester, Wolverhampton and Coventry, with new cities being added over the coming weeks. 

In combination with the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM), google designed the ‘Environmental Insights Explorer’ (EIE), as a means to:

Belgium-based brewing conglomerate AB InBev has announced that it will use a train to transfer most of its beer shipments to the port of Antwerp by 2020.

The company, which has its headquarters in the Belgian city of Leuven, is the world’s largest brewer exporting beer from Belgium to 100 countries. Every day, several trucks currently transport the beer from its production site to the port of Antwerp.

The development of hydrogen mobility is continuing to be supported by the German government. The federal Ministry of Transport recently announced that another €23.5 million has been allocated to projects as part of the National Innovation Programme on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP).

A new call for proposals under the new Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Blending Facility has recently been launched by the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA). Under the Blending Facility, €198 million in grants has been made available to promote the participation of private sector investors and financial institutions in projects contributing to the environmental sustainability and efficiency of transport in Europe.

The Romanian city of Auid, in the Transylvania region, is to benefit from an EU regional development grant to improve the environmental performance of its transport system. 

Bristol is to be the first city in the UK to ban privately-owned diesel vehicles from entering the city centre.

In the Italian Emilia-Romagna region, cycling mobility is becoming increasingly popular. The Councillor for Transport within the Region, Mr Raffaele Donini, recently revealed that one in ten people across the region regularly use their bicycles for home-to-work or home-to-study related journeys while speaking at a press conference on new financing for the construction of cycle paths. 

Poland is planning to introduce a “congestion tax” on large superstores such as supermarkets, furniture shops, and other large-scale retail stores. With this tax, the Polish government wants to hold these superstores responsible for the increase in traffic volumes and congestion in their proximity. Jadwiga Emilewicz, the Polish Minister for entrepreneurship and technology, stated that “increased congestion results in higher costs to answer to insufficient transport infrastructure”. Using an algorithm, the shares of stores on increase congestion would be calculated and attributed.

Leading charging solutions providers sound the bell for an open standard for charging networks for electric vehicles and promote the transition to e-mobility.