The opinion highlight that a shift towards low-carbon mobility will support jobs, growth, investment and innovation. It will strengthen Europe's competitiveness. Cities and regions play a key role for the success of the strategy. They are operators of urban and regional transport and are at the forefront improve efficiency through digital technologies and provision of low-emission alternative energy for zero emission vehicle.
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
- welcomes the fact that the current strategy is a multi-disciplinary, comprehensive approach that includes sociological and economic aspects, innovations in the energy, infrastructure and digital sectors, industrial competitiveness and skills development;
- emphasises that by harnessing the potential of digital technologies it will be possible to optimise transportation and set up a multimodal trans-European transport (TEN-T) network. The prerequisites are intelligent transport systems (ITSs) and infrastructure. It is also important to take account of ecosytems reflecting local environmental characteristics and ensure the involvement of LRAs in the implementation phase;
- encourages, in the context of SUMPs, multimodality and coordinated use of low- or zero-emission urban-regional transport and logistics, and rail, maritime and river transport. In particular the shift from road transport to other, lower emissions modes would have significant potential in terms of lowering emissions;
- encourages, by supporting the development of the energy sector, the introduction of alternative energy sources in transport, paving the way to "zero-emissions" transport;
- stresses that low- or zero-emission mobility is expected to revolutionise transport in terms of networks, vehicles and fuels. The prerequisite of that is cheap, accessible energy and fuels;
- notes that IT solutions promote mobility based on the combined use of all modes of transport for passengers and freight (e.g. integrated ticketing and toll systems, intermodal freight transport documents, electronic route planning, etc.).