SMART’s Distinguished speakers

SMART Presentation Summary

Urban areas are vital to the economic, environmental and social future of our world. Cities in ECMT and OECD countries account for approximately 80 per cent of the population and around 90 per cent of economic activity. But their transport systems, and the use made of them, also pose serious problems. For example, across the EU15, cities account for close to 80 per cent of all congestion costs, 20,000 fatalities each year through road accidents, upwards of 100 000 premature deaths each year through traffic pollution,- and between 2 and 15 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. German research suggests that 1,800 deaths - most in urban areas - are brought forward each year through excessive noise.

Clearly, urban problems are not just a concern for local government. The ECMT and OECD together developed an integrated strategy for tackling these problems in 1995. In 2001, the ECMT completed a review of the readiness of countries and cities to introduce such a strategy, and concluded that implementing integrated policy packages for sustainable urban travel had proven easier said than done. ECMT provided a series of Key Messages for Governments, arguing that they should:

• establish a supportive national policy framework;
• improve institutional coordination and cooperation;
• encourage effective public participation, partnerships and communication;
• provide a supportive legal and regulatory framework;
• ensure a comprehensive pricing and fiscal structure;
• rationalize financing and investment streams; and
• improve data collection, monitoring and research.

Since then the ECMT Sustainable Urban Travel Steering Group’s work has focused on examining how these Key Messages are or are not being applied in different decision-making contexts. This has been done through a series of three regional workshops in Washington, D.C. (November 2003), Moscow (September 2004), and Tokyo (March 2005). At the same time, several specific studies have been conducted to examine barriers to implementing cycling measures (an area ECMT had not studied before) and in organizing and financing public transport. A third topic of specific focus —how to improve urban travel data collection and monitoring—has been investigated by a special task force. The Steering Group has also been able to take account of the ECMT’s related work on CO2 emissions, accessibility, congestion and the policy instruments of road pricing and corporate mobility management.

This presentation summarized the findings from the work to date. It began by recalling the principal objectives of sustainable urban travel and the policy instruments available to work towards that goal. The talk then reviewed the barriers to their implementation and the need for a logical process for strategy development and implementation. Finally it expanded on the seven Key Messages for Governments of 2001 and highlighted several additional issues which have emerged as important since their formulation.

• View her PowerPoint presentation (pdf)

Links

The European Conference of Ministers of Transport’s Webpage
The International Transport Forum’s Webpage

Biography

Mary Crass is a Principal Administrator and senior policy analyst for the Paris-based European Conference of Ministers of Transport. an intergovernmental organization within the OECD that has recently been transformed by its now 50 Member countries into the International Transport Forum.

Within the ECMT, she has been responsible for the organization’s work on sustainable urban travel, accessible transport and social inclusion, and crime and terrorism in transport.

With the recently agreed reform (2006-2007) of the ECMT into a more global International Transport Forum, Ms. Crass has managed aspects of the preparation of the 2007 Ministerial Conference on Mitigating Congestion, held in Sofia, Bulgaria in May 2007 and is responsible for programme development for the first International Transport Forum meeting, to be held in Leipzig in May 2008.

Prior to joining the ECMT in 2000, Ms. Crass worked as a private consultant focusing on transport and environment issues for among others the UN Environment Programme, the European Commission, the ECMT and the OECD, as well as private enterprise. She was previously with a U.S.-based environmental consulting firm specializing in environmental technical assistance work in developing countries and economies in transition.

Ms. Crass has a B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin and a Masters Degree in international economics and energy and environment policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

She and her husband live just outside Paris and have two boys.

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