Mobility in urban areas - Cars

Urban transport accounts for around half of all carbon dioxide emissions from road traffic. In addition to their impact on carbon dioxide emissions, measures to reduce urban transport would have the advantage of reducing the formation of ground-level ozone in conurbations, an aspect which Member States have neglected.

To tackle the transport issue and climate impacts caused by the car traffic, the Greens stand for the following solutions:

• Promote Car-Free cities: city centres must become car-free zones!
  Car-Free Sunday-initiatives should be taken more often than once a year. Car-free tourism is a very interesting option particularly for cultural tourism in cities;
  
  
• Support urban road-pricing and congestion charging initiatives, similar to those of London and Stockholm;
  
  
• Set also the speedlimits for cars in general at 30km/h in urban areas and at 100km/h on highways. It would contribute to safer, quieter and less polluting mobility.
  

Drop the total number of km per car and per year. Alternative mobility management chains of walking/cycling-public/collective transport - car-sharing/-pooling should get priority in urban areas, enterprises, local authorities.

• Set a strict binding EU legislation promoting low emissions cars. The industry itself must have an incentive to reduce the averga CO2-emissions of its cars. This should be done through a new binding EU directive on average consumption.
  
  
• Natural gas and LPG for cars, the switch to hydrogen from renewables as an energy source, the sun powered car and fuel-cell train-buses, are examples of possible additional options for the middle or long term. Bio-fuels should be considered within their total impact on the ecology.