Policies
National Level
A key objective of national transport policies of CEE countries is to increase the competitiveness and accessibility of their economies to the European Union. National transport policies of CEE countries mainly focus on the construction of new motorways for international corridors and the upgrading of national routes between larger cities. The aim is to improve the integration in the Trans-European Road networks. Large sums of money have been devoted to motorway programmes. At the national level, however, there is in general a lack of transportation policies for cities and urban agglomerations. As regards rail transport, national authorities are aiming at improving European transport corridors. The development of the rail network focuses on increasing line speeds on main connections.Regional and Local Policies
Regional and local level transportation policies however are often non-existent with the exception of large cities who have defined local transportation plans. In the past, local transport policy mainly consisted in maintaining the local road network and operating public transport services.In the early nineties, cities had to face new transport problems. As
a consequence of the increase of car ownership, traffic congestion and
pollution increasingly appeared and public transport use declined rapidly.
Public transport companies had to adjust their services to lower demand.
Cities have started to realise, that the extension of road infrastructure
is not a viable option to solve urban transport problems. In many urban
areas now future strategies aim at slowing down the increase of individual
traffic and reversing the existing trends of declining public transport
demand. Measures for public transport priority, renewal of the public transport
rolling stock and track rehabilitation or modernising ticketing systems
are becoming more and more appreciated. Along with the promotion of public
transport systems, cities are increasingly aware of the importance of restrictive
physical, fiscal and legal measures to constrain road traffic (traffic
calming, parking management, etc.). The implementation level of these measures
however is still very low.
Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe
