EPA - Ireland's Environment, An Integrated Assessment - 2020

Chapter 11: Environment and Transport Topic Box 11.6 Shifting to Public Transport in Vienna Vienna is a city celebrated for its high quality of life, and also its approach to modal shift to public transport. The ‘Vienna model’ featured at the EPA’s National Climate Conference in 2019. The city introduced an unlimited public transport ticket for a flat fee of €365 a year in 2012, far cheaper than the European average. The city has benefited from policy that has consistently prioritised the development and expansion of its train, metro, tram and bus lines. The new €1 a day ticket is aimed at encouraging a switch from the private car, by increasing use of the available public transport. Additional costs, on top of the annual public subsidy of €700 million, are met by a major increase in the sale of annual tickets and additional measures. The Vienna model has been successful in supporting modal shift, with public transport journeys growing to 950 million in 2017, almost 20 per cent higher than 2007. Public transport now supplies 38 per cent of journeys, with just 29 per cent by private car according to the city transport company, Wiener Linien. They estimate that every person who switches to public transport saves up to 1.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, with reductions in air pollution in parallel (Wiener Linien, 2019). Vienna aims for a vision of desirable and affordable places to live, delivering both numbers of housing and quality of life. To achieve this, the mobility element of this vision integrates spatial and transport planning, and also prioritises the active modes of walking and cycling, along with public transport. The final step in the hierarchy is to consider the ‘improve’ approach to remove carbon emissions from vehicles. This is achieved through electric and other zero carbon technology, across passenger and freight activity, both public and private. Decarbonisation involves maximising alternative powertrains, including electric and hydrogen fuel cells, and also biofuels. The decarbonisation of public transport also facilitates the win-win of improving air quality, particularly in challenging urban locations. Public sector leadership has an important role to play in catalysing the move to low-carbon vehicles, in the fleet procurement of local authorities, state agencies and public institutions. Governance and Investment The long-term transformation required is a complex task, involving trade-offs between the interests of different stakeholders, operating at different scales. The choice of a sustainable pathway can be enabled by providing appropriate governance and institutional structures for implementation and review, underpinned by evidence and knowledge capacity, and, critically, supported by political will and targeted investment. The transformation required is a complex task, involving trade-offs between the interests of different stakeholders, operating at different scales (Devaney and Torney, 2019). Governance involves consideration of the interests of institutional, society and market actors together, to understand what shared visions can achieve, and what tensions must be resolved. This requires public participation and dialogue, and the centrality of just transition. The recent additions to Irish climate policy implementation and monitoring frameworks, under the Climate Action Plan, are an example of the institutional and policy structures that can be harnessed to enhance coordinated and integrated governance for sustainable mobility. A key finding from the IPCC, through policy experience globally, is the need for long-term national strategies and visions, supported by short-term regional and local implementation plans (Sims et al. , 2014). In Ireland, this requires giving priority to enhanced evidence- based integration of spatial and transport planning, with investment targeting substantial change in current patterns and outcomes. Institutional arrangements for long-term spatial and transport planning in Ireland are improving to the point where policymakers can begin to consider how we can avoid journeys in the first place, through better spatial planning and demand management, working in concert with the mobility planning and investment necessary to bring about a major shift from the private car to the sustainable modes of walking, cycling and public transport. Further capacity building, across the relevant institutions, can support the practice of long-term integrated spatial and transport planning. A prerequisite for the more joined-up approach to sustainable and climate action-centred spatial and transport planning is policymaking structures at the appropriate geographical level. Those making the decisions – in Ireland the elected members of the local government system – must be equipped with the relevant information to make decisions in line with sustainable outcomes. The issue of the appropriate geographical level is critical because strategic action on climate-centred spatial and transport planning requires the consideration of issues that must take account of, but go beyond, the level of individual local authorities, of which there are 31 in Ireland. 295