Rome, 13 December 2011 – The issue of traffic flows in mountain areas and, in particular, in the Alps, goes beyond national borders and needs to be thought again with a view to sustainable development and international cooperation. The Kyoto Protocol and the recent developments occurred in Durban, the policies of the European Union (EU) and the existing agreements between EU and Switzerland in the field of transport give a boost to States looking for new solutions, including a renewed attention to the railway sector and to the integration of different transport modes.

These themes have been analyzed during the Seventh Scientific Workshop on Mountain Mobility and Transport (SWOMM), which was held on 13 December 2011 at the Ministry for Transport and Infrastructures of Italy in Rome, to mark the celebrations for the International Mountain Day. The workshop SWOMM 2011 was promoted by the Italian Ministries for the Environment and for Transports, organized in cooperation with the Mountain Partnership Secretariat and the European Academy of Bolzano (EURAC) with the support of Transalpine Transport Architects (TRANSITECTS), the project on freight rail traffic in the Alps, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the “Alpine Space” Programme.

The panellist included a number of experts and the discussion was held under the auspices of the new Minister for the Environment of Italy Corrado Clini, who has sustained the SWOMM related initiatives since the very beginning in 2005. The speakers illustrated viable solutions aimed at addressing common problems such as the poor economic return on several rail lines and the lack of connections with other localities and regions: more effective planning of transport systems in national policies (Frey, Vescovi), increase in the use of innovative technologies (Senesi), improvements of the logistics in particular for freight transport (Ciochetta, Di Patrizi, Piccoli). In the afternoon important representatives of the secondary railways of the Alpine arch, gathered together in Rome for the first time, presented to the public a series of initiatives adopted by their companies to attract tourists and commuters, from all inclusive packages coupled with sport activities (ski pass, jumping, biking, canyoning, ect.) to trips made at the rhythm of blues and swing or inside carriages recognized as part of the world’s heritage by UNESCO.

The publication SWOMM 2010 – Transport and Environment in Mountain Areas was also launched during the workshop. Find it at this link: SWOMM 2010 or please send a request for hard copies to: info@swomm.info.

To find out more please see at this link the SUMMARY:

• SWOMM 2011_summary&agenda_EN
• SWOMM 2011_resoconto&programma_IT

and please find the PRESENTATIONS of the speakers here below.

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Photo: Andrea Bianchini

Tuesday 13^th December 2011

Ministry for Infrastructures and Transport of Italy

The Scientific Workshop on Mountain Mobility and Transport

The seventh Scientific Workshop on Mountain Mobility and Transport (SWOMM) will take place on 13 December in Rome, at the Ministry for Infrastructures and Transport, EUR Headquarters (Viale dell’Arte N. 16). SWOMM 2011 is promoted by the Italian Ministries for the Environment and Transport and organized with the support of EURAC and the Mountain Partnership Secretariat.

The event is organized within the framework of Transalpine Transport Architects (TRANSITECTS), the project co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, through the “Alpine Space” Programme. With a partnership of sixteen public and private bodies from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia, TRANSITECTS is aiming at favouring intermodal solutions for the passage of freight traffics from road to rail, by improving the accessibility, the logistics and the existing infrastructures within the alpine area.

Over the alpine arch, due to the presence of steep slopes and narrow road corridors, the polluting emissions produced by vehicles for passenger and freight traffics are considerable, particularly in the valleys, and they cause damages to the vulnerable alpine ecosystems and the local population. The issue of alpine traffic overcomes the national borders and the EU countries are oriented towards the transfer, where possible, of transports from road to rail.

Inspired by the themes of the TRANSITECTS project, the SWOMM 2011 is aiming at examining the topic of rail transport in mountain areas and in particular in the Alps, by making reference not only to the freight but also to the passenger movements. The speakers, including managing directors of railway companies and experts coming from research centers as well as from administrations involved in the management of traffic flows and railways infrastructures in mountain regions, will meet to discuss and share their knowledge and experiences on the theme.

The SWOMM represents since 2005 an international occasion of exchange on themes related to transport in mountain areas. As every year, the event is organized in December to mark the celebration of the International Mountain Day (11 December) designated by the United Nations General Assembly.

The registration is compulsory for all attending participants.

Please fill in this registration form by 12 December at 12 a.m..

Furthermore, we kindly ask you to bring a valid identity document.

The MIT headquarters are close to the Metro Station EUR-Fermi (map). To get there by metro from Termini Station please take the B line towards the direction Laurentina.

Contacts:

SWOMM SCIENTIFIC SECRETARIAT

info@swomm.info

Agenda_SWOMM 2011_EN – (Final)

Programma_SWOMM 2011_IT – (Final)

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Focusing on “Efficiency and sustainability: from research to market”, the event this year was organized with the support of the Inter-University Centre for Sustainable Development of the “Sapienza” University of Rome (CIRPS), by the National Research Council (CNR) – Department for Energy and Transport, the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA).

Renewed speakers took part in the two days while in the exhibition area, Green Expo, new environmental friendly technologies, with prototypes and cars with zero or near zero emissions were offered to the public, who could also make some drive test on eco-friendly vehicles on-board.

With a view to contribute to the Kyoto goals, H2Roma has joined the project Impatto Zero®, promoted by LifeGate. The CO₂ emissions generated by the organization of the event, including the electricity used, the mobility of participants, as well as the promotional material produced, will be evaluated by Lifegate and their negative impact on earth will be reduced by contributing to the creation and protection of over 9,000 square metres of growing forest in Costa Rica. A concrete initiative for the environment, contributing to the preservation of one of the most important natural heritage of the planet. From 2002 until now, more than 40 million square metres of forest in Italy and abroad have been regenerated and conserved.

Fabio Orecchini, H2Roma scientific coordinator, stated during the press conference presenting the event: “What awaits us is a future made by small, powerful and efficient engines and growing electrification with different fuels (petrol, natural gas/biomethane, LPG, diesel hydrogen), powered by lightweight and efficient on-board batteries”.

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Bike messenger is the more and more not simply seen as a job like many others, while it’s also becoming a cultural and sociologic phenomenon. In its Urban Flow, Jeffrey L. Kidder (a sociologist who spent several years working as a bike messenger) introduces readers to this “unknown world”, showing its appeal and their benefits, without forgetting to mention their disadvantages, uncertainties and dangers. The contribution of bike messengers is not meaningless as they realise no carbon emissions transfers and they contribute to the overall improvement of the transport system efficiency. Their successful and easy-to-replicate example may be a further incentive to renounce using private transportation, even just for short distances and without carrying any item. Despite the work is generally intense and difficult, and often even not well paid, the link between people and bikes is often so strong that the messengers’ after-hours are characterized by the emersion of new life-styles and subcultures inextricably linked to their job and to the urban environment.

Being aware of the economic and social aspects of innovation in mobility represented by these new “urban eco-friendly delivery boys”, we believe Kidder’s original analysis of the phenomenon and the profound cultural and sociological influences he highlights are really worth reading.

Source:

• cornellpress.cornell.edu/

The world’s mountains were included in the global development agenda at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, by introducing a specific Chapter 13 into Agenda 21. Twenty years later, sustainable mountain development (SMD) matters more than ever, and it is important to take stock of what has been achieved so far, and what has not.

On the occasion of the 47th Permanent Committee of the Alpine Convention, hold under the Swiss Presidency, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Development (ARE) are organizing the “Lucerne World Mountain Conference”. The event will take place on 11 and 12 October 2011 in Lucerne, Switzerland, organized within the framework of the Mountain Partnership, with the support of the Mountain Partnership Consortium members and UNESCO.

In the months before the Conference expert groups drafted regional reports and a report on global aspects of SMD since Rio 1992, including the theme of green economy and institutional frameworks for sustainable development and poverty alleviation in mountains. The Conference will serve to present, discuss, and revise  these reports, with a view to identify challenges and opportunities for the future of global sustainable mountain development.

The results of the Conference will feed into various efforts and international processes (i.e. the UN Secretary General’s High-level Panel on Global Sustainability (GSP), the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD or Rio+20), and the CSD biennial cycle 20/21 in 2013 and 2014). SWOMM also aims to contribute to these international processes and discussions on SMD, focusing on sustainable transport in the mountain. In particular, in 2010, a special side event was organized during the CSD session on transport (swomm-side-event-12th-may-2010-at-the-commission-on-sustainable-development-csd; the-united-nations-transport-policies).

During the conference the Italian National Focal point of the Alpine Convention Mr. Paolo Angelini will announce the initiative for Rio +20, which is being jointly developed by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Mountain partnership/FAO and UNEP.

Participation in the conference is on invitation only.

For more information on the conference:

• mountainslucerne2011.mtnforum.org/
• mountainpartnership.org

Photo: Flavio Scarpacci

“This agreement on fuel standards represents the single most important step we’ve ever taken as a nation to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said President Obama. According to some unrevealed sources, the agreement would require for the period 2017 – 2025 a reduction of 40% on fuel consumption (reaching an average of 54,5 miles per gallon) and a 50% cut in greenhouse gases emission (163 grams per mile of dioxide carbon). This targets would require a 5% annual improvement rate for cars and a 3,5% for light trucks between 2017 and 2025. The oil savings and the environmental benefits of this comprehensive program are showed in a new report entitled Driving Efficiency:  Cutting Costs for Families at the Pump and Slashing Dependence on Oil, which the Administration released the same day during the press conference.

In order to achieve better standards, automakers are expected to boost their use of advanced technologies as a fundamental element to improve the vehicles fleet. Incentives on this matter are more likely to be implemented to encourage early adoption and a more favourable introduction into the market, including e.g. aids for further develop electric, plug-in hybrid electric and fuel cells vehicles and aids for advanced technology packages for large pickups (hybridization and other performance-based strategies).

Great efforts will be surely necessary to reach such an ambitious program. Potential economic advantages for the environment and the population are undeniable, however it is not obvious that politics and industrial lobbies will maintain in the upcoming years the same approach, in consideration also of the current difficult economic conditions and many other financial aspects that may influence the decision assumed.

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The economist Matthew Turner said that the percentage of traffic grows at the same rate of the marginal increase of roads in the cities. Regarding public transportation, the study also points out that if more and more citizens employ bus or train this will not impact on the traffic trend. Indeed, the increase is registered in the number of passengers rather than in the number of drivers.

The one-to-one relation existing between roads and vehicle miles driven here above mentioned is named by the authors “the fundamental law of road congestion”. According to this law, widening the road network would not reduce traffic congestion, nor would it be done by a further increase in the use of public means, which is not impacting on the figure of vehicles per kilometers travelled (vkt). Therefore, they conclude, congestion pricing is the only effective tool to curb traffic problems.

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Better Place is a company specialized in solving problems such as battery life and charging times. This kind of troubles posed by electric mobility harasses the drivers, even those who are more supportive of zero-emissions mobility.

Better Place has opened in these days the first service station in Europe, where you can quickly replace the battery of an electric car with another one fully charged. The station is in Gladsaxe, near Copenhagen, and it’s the first of the 20 stations that will arise in the whole Country during the next nine months, in collaboration with DONG Energy and over 45 municipalities.

The station is completely automated: during the few minutes required to change the battery with a mechanical arm, the driver can remain inside his car. The first test was performed with a Renault car, the electric one that Renault will commercialize by next autumn. Better Place explains that this technology of rapid replacement will eliminate the problem of autonomy, because the electric car can travel greater distances than those allowed by a single charge: about 160 km for Renault models coming to the market.

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After having substantially neglected urban mobility issues for a long time when urban sprawl extended, a massive construction of new light railway and underground systems happened in more than 30 Chinese cities, with a growth of 50 percent in the number of subway carriages in China in the last year. In almost all the cases, the works are financed by government subsidies. Fares are generally cheap (starting from 2 yuan, corresponding to 0,31 dollars) and the services are clean and efficient. Nevertheless, from the economic point of view, none of the Chinese metro networks is profitable, highlighting losses of several millions of yuan.

Shezhen is experimenting a new way: the new Metro line 4 (costed some 6 billion yuan) is the first Chinese rail route fully funded by a private company, Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation, under the build-operate-transfer model. MTR tries to reply what it did in 1975 in Hong Kong, by proposing a financial model that blends railway operation with property development.

The rail operator is understood to be in talks with the authorities for the right to develop its 30-hectare depot at the Longhua station. According to MTR documents, 8 ha of the depot are reserved for property development: property prices in Longhua would have the potential to rise 60-70 percent in the next 5 years, to 40 thousands yuan per sqm, owing to the area’s improved accessibility. Moreover, the MTR will collect lease and advertising income from the 100 shops and 900 advertising boxes at the 15 stations on the route.

MTR has been granted a 30-year franchise for Line 4. This line, occupies the network’s most central location and provides interchanges for all lines and it will also link up with the future high-speed railway to Guangzhou and Hong Kong’s East Rail at Futian.

In any case, “government subsidies are expected to remain a major mode of financing public transport services on the mainland, but if the rail-plus-property model proves to be sustainable, the government will consider adopting it for other rail projects,” said one rail expert.

Next years to come will show whether this model may offer a more market-oriented alternative to general government subsidies and public investments in the building of new urban metro lines, creating opportunities for private investors to join this business and a more profitable future for the community.

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Many European cities are creating car-unfriendly environments, for instance by increasing the costs for driving. Another way to tilt the drivers towards more environmental-friendly transport means is that of hampering them to park. In fact, while there is always room for new shopping malls and apartment buildings in cities like Vienna, Barcelona and London, the number of parking spaces are being restricted, and the on-street parking is vanishing.

In the last few years, even former car capitals like Munich have evolved into “walkers’ paradises”. Pedestrians and trams are given priority treatment in Zurich: red lights have been added in close proximity on roads into town, and pedestrian underpasses have been removed. Operators in the city’s ever expanding tram system can turn traffic lights in their favor as they approach, forcing cars to halt.

Europe’s cities generally have stronger incentives to act: public transportation is better in Europe than in the United States, and gas often costs more, over 8 dollars a gallon. What’s more, the need for a cut in the emissions from transport is being seriously taken into consideration.

However, it is not easy to get people out of their cars. While the first step is that of providing efficient public transport, the strategy, which is proving to pay off, is that of making harder and more costly to park.