On Monday and Tuesday 27-28 January, the International Transport Forum (ITF) gathered Transport and Mobility organizations for an interactive discussion to prepare the prestigious ITF 2020 Summit on ”Transport Innovation for Sustainable Development”, which will take place in Leipzig at the end of May.
The International Transport Forum was created in 2006 by ministers from 43 countries all over the world: it now counts 60 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, US, India, China, Japan and Russia, which aim at exploring common intergovernmental policies that have a positive impact on Transport and Mobility in their respective territories.
How new technologies and business models enhance the accessibility, safety and efficiency of transport infrastructure and services is the reasoning at the heart of the ITF consultation: the Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry (CONEBI) and WBIA (World Bicycle Industry Association) participated for the first time ever, raising the attention on topics that range from the pivotal role of bicycles and e-bikes within the future development of emission-free smart cities to the importance of improving road safety via concrete political decisions for all Vulnerable Road Users, including cyclists. The consultation represented the perfect occasion to reiterate as well the need to support the Bicycle Industry in its efforts to provide solutions for last mile delivery and incentivize transport decarbonization with the adoption – by governments – of cutting-edge policies that have the potential to pragmatically shape the role of sustainable mobility.
”We want to make sure that bicycle and e-bikes – in an open dialogue with public transport services and local traffic management authorities – are going to be treated as number one priority to foster commuting and commercial deliveries in urban conglomerates” – says CONEBI GM and WBIA spokesperson Manuel Marsilio. ”The tangible challenges ahead due to climate change all over the world expose decision-makers to high pressure – both from the international institutions and citizens – to invest more resources in drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants: for instance congestion charges to be invested in cycling infrastructures, but also more attention to carbon budgets to better understand the detrimental impact of CO2 that derives from mobility. I hope that Oslo’s commitment to become a carbon neutral city by 2030 is going to be a convincing example for many other cities”.
The consultation saw the participation – among others – of the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Metropolitan Transport Authorities (EMTA), the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) and the European Conference of Transport Research Institutes (ECTRI). ”What defines transport innovation is economic growth, environmental sustainability and social inclusion” argued the ITF Secretariat during the introduction of their Work Program. There are indeed five major themes which can be identified within transport innovation: decarbonization, safety & security, connectivity, digitalization and accessibility.
CONEBI and WBIA thank the International Transport Forum for the invitation and look forward to the 2020 Summit to present to the international community and world transport ministers the vision that the Industry has with regard to Sustainable Transport – together with the key findings that relate to the industry contribution in terms of jobs, growth, research and innovation.
