Transport Público: Duplicar a Quota até 2025

A UITP (International Association of Public Transport) publicou recentemente um documento de estratégia para os próximos anos, onde se estabelece uma meta deveras ambiciosa para os transportes públicos: duplicar a quota de mercado do transporte público, à escala mundial, até 2025 (cf. http://www.uitp.org/advocacy/public_transport.cfm).
Esta meta é tanto mais ambiciosa quanto, em muitos países e cidades, de que é exemplo quase toda a América Latina, a quota do transporte público é já maioritária, o que torna matematicamente impossível que esta possa duplicar nessas regiões.

Significa portanto que esta organização coloca a fasquia do desenvolvimento futuro do transporte num nível muito elevado, a qual é, porém, considerada necessária para garantir a sustentabilidade ambiental da mobilidade, já que actualmente os sistemas de transporte são dos maiores contribuintes para as emissões de gases com efeito de estufa (GHG).

Neste documento, a UITP refere um conjunto de estratégias que deverão contribuir de forma decisiva para a referida meta de duplicação da quota do TP, nomeadamente  (tradução minha, relativamente livre):

• Serviços de transporte ajustados à vida dos cidadãos para que estes optem pelo transporte público;
• Integração nas políticas urbanas do transporte público
• Nova cultura de empresarial
• Ferramentas de gestão da procura.

Trata-se de uma proposta estratégica que, embora ainda possa vir a passar por uma fase de maior concretização, deverá certamente constituir um referencial importante, influenciando as políticas de transporte de muitos países.

Recomendo por isso a leitura do documento.

Objective: To actively influence citizens’ mobility behaviour with measures and policies that further encourage the use of public transport.
Rationale:
The management of mobility in cities must rely on demand management measures as citizens’ mobility behaviour is shaped by many factors, a number of which are independent from public transport policy:

• the urban form (the spatial organisation of the city and its metropolitan area) which is notably linked to the urban planning culture of the city or the country;
• the socio-economic situation of the city (type and level of economic activities, opportunities for leisure and cultural activities, etc.);
• the space and equipment devoted to each mode of transport (private motorised, public transport, walking and cycling);
• the tax and pricing regime applied to each mode of transport;

• personal circumstances (employed or not, social networks, physical mobility).

These factors and more generally the political, operational and policy context of each area have an influence on mobility patterns and on the attractiveness of public transport. Acting on these factors and taking them into account in public transport policy helps influence mobility behaviour (see 5.2) - in the short and the long term- and increase the demand for public transport.
Key requirements:

• To optimize the support of public transport to urban development and regeneration.
• To control urban sprawl.
• To control the use of private motorised vehicles in the city by testing all available instruments (e.g. access restrictions, parking management, urban toll, etc.) and devising a mix of measures adapted to the local circumstances.
• To implement an attractive and competitive fare system: fare level, structure, integration, etc.
• To promote “smarter travel choices”, i.e. non-car options for journeys (notably more urban space for walking, cycling and public transport).
• To consider undertaking actions to smooth demand at peak time (differentiated public transport fares and/or urban toll charges (if applicable), flex-time work schedules).
• To maintain a dialogue with and coordination between all mobility actors

Indicators/Evidence of actions taken:
The following indicators are the main measures of the success of demand management.

• Provision of public transport in new or regenerated urban areas
• Proportion of car traffic avoided thanks to access control measures and/or urban toll (if applicable)
• Number of parking spaces (per 1000 jobs) in the city centre
• Cost of parking (for short and long stays) in the city centre
• Share of taxes in fuel prices
• Comparative speed of public transport and private motorized vehicles
• Comparison of public transport fares and/or urban toll charges (if applicable) at peak and off peak time
• Awareness raising campaigns (EU Mobility Week), education in schools