- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly debate on 26 January 1970 (20th Sitting) (sec Doc. 2699, report of the Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities). Text adopted by the Assembly on 26 January 1970 (20th Sitting).
The Assembly,
1. Having noted the report of its Committee on Regional Planning and Local Authorities on the problem of urban traffic ;
2. Fully recognising the function of communications as the nervous system of all social life, and of urban life in particular ;
3. Observing nevertheless that in very many towns, the volume of urban traffic has reached a point bordering on paralysis owing to the fact that towns, and especially historical towns, were not originally laid out in the expectation of such an explosion of urban traffic, which is itself due to the growth of population and accelerating urbanisation ;
4. Noting further the sometimes catastrophic degree of air pollution, which is due largely to vehicles with internal combustion engines and is harmful both to health and to the appearance of our towns ;
5. Noting also the baneful effects on mental health of the noise caused by moving vehicles ;
6. Convinced that energetic and bold solutions must be urgently sought by both central and local authorities ;
7. Believing that remedies must be sought in several directions, including regulations and legislation, research into new technical solutions and their application and, lastly, systematic and unremitting action on public opinion ;
8. Believing further that it might be well to review the role of public transport as a public service which must be considerably extended and improved both from the point of view of convenience and price, and from that of comfort ;
9. Believing likewise that the problem of urban traffic must be considered in the context of regional planning especially in the surroundings of urban growth points ;
10. Convinced, in this connection, that a redistribution of population and a regulated development of small and medium-sized towns, including the creation of new towns, may constitute in some cases the only rational solution to the problem of traffic and communications ;
11. Convinced also that many new techniques both in the field of means of transport and in that of their methods of propulsion cannot emerge from the experimental phase owing to the lack of public finance and of real encouragement from the public authorities ;
12. Convinced in particular that the introduction of electrically driven vehicles could solve several problems simultaneously, including the problems of noise and pollution, as well as, at any rate partially, those of congestion, and would thus constitute an exceptionally valuable innovation,
13. Invites its members to make representations in their national parliaments with a view to promoting all budgetary and legislative measures capable of making advanced technical solutions in the field of urban traffic move forward from the experimental stage to the stage of application ;
14. Invites the European Conference of Local Authorities to give thought to the problem of accustoming local authorities to modern technical innovations, to make proposals if need be for the financing of such innovations in the field of urban transport, and to study existing methods of informing and influencing public opinion on questions of urban transport.
