This report provides an overview of the main EU Research and Innovation (R&I) actions for and with cities, promoted both at the European and international level to foster sustainable urban development. In addition, it presents a detailed overview of budget of Horizon 2020 and the past three research Framework Programmes (FP7, FP6 and FP5) committed to city-related projects.
Although European roads still claim too many fatalities and seriously injured, the long-term safety trend has been positive. Among others, improved vehicle safety standards since the late 1990s have played an important role.
Improvements in the safety of new vehicles in Europe have been driven by mandatory EU and UNECE safety requirements for new vehicles - and by Euro NCAP, a voluntary consumer-testing organisation that carries out its own tests of many vehicles that sell in large numbers and awards safety ratings to them.
The annual TERM reports prepared by EEA help to track environmental performance of transport in the EEA member countries. The report uses a set of indicators that are regularly updated.
Cycling as a mode of transport can be seen as a driver of jobs and economic activity just as much as cars and public transport vehicles. The European Cyclists' Federation has produced a report which examines the contribution that cycling makes to economic and job growth across the EU, ranging from bicycle manufacture and repair, to cycle tourism, to the economic impact of public bike-sharing schemes.
Increasing the numbers of people who choose to cycle rather than drive is a well-established method to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality. The European Cyclists' Federation has produced a report which examines the evolution of air pollution concentrations in five European cities (Antwerp, London, Nantes, Seville and Thessaloniki), concluding that cycling is an effective tool to reduce urban air pollution when combined with other sustainable mobility measures.
The Transport section of the Eurostat Regional Yearbook gives information on road, rail, air and maritime transport within EU countries and others such as Norway, Iceland and Turkey. Particular data is given with respect to passenger numbers, injuries in road accidents, rates of motorisation and lengths/densities of networks.
In addition to their annual Transport and Environment Reporting Mechanism (TERM) report, the EEA also regularly publish reports on topics of interest. Recent publications have focussed on the following topics:
This annual publication provides an overview of the most recent and most pertinent annual transport-related statistics in Europe. It covers the European Union and its 28 Member States and, as far as possible, the current EU candidate countries and the EFTA countries.
The European Environment Agency's TERM 4 is a comparison of mean and maximum urban traffic and background emissions of NO2, PM2.5 and PM10. Its intention is to show the influence of traffic on air quality. The data is collected from Airbase and is updated annually.
Radverkehr in Zahlen (Bicycle traffic in figures) is an Austrian report about cycling. It gives a statistical overview about cycling traffic from a number of different perspectives including bicycle ownership, cyclist behaviour, cycling infrastructure and safety and security.
National Austrian facts and figures are compared to international statistics. The report further outlines the impact of cycling on the economy and gives information about the existing types of bicycles. The concluding section contains a survey on the user satisfaction.
