Urban roads and public transport services are essential for the daily lives of citizens and for the local economy, increasing in importance, as cities grow larger and travel distances to work become too long for walking. The importance of urban public transport services is unusually pronounced in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region. The socialist-era heritage of cities in ECA includes a predominance of public transport modes in passenger travel, based on a universal access to low-priced and good-quality transport services.

The passage from central planning to market-based economies has weakened this dominance on both demand and supply sides and has threatened the service quality and the universality of access. Throughout the 1990s, a fall in economic output and average incomes, and emergence of mass poverty, has been concurrent with a rise of fortunes for some population strata. The first affected the ability to pay for public services, and the latter stimulated an increase in motorization. The subsequent recovery, where it occurred, has tended to accelerate motorization without a like relief for public transport services and the supply of urban roads.

The results of this on the street scene, in terms of transport service availability and quality, have posed a unique challenge to urban societies in ECA, with intertwined growth, equity, poverty and environmental concerns.

Objectives of the Workshop:

Encourage knowledge-sharing between municipal and regional practitioners in the field of sustainable urban transport

Support each participant in developing a concrete action-plan

Transmit technical expertise in the fields of
1.financing public transport,
2.fleet modernization,
3.integrated transport management,
4.private sector participation,
5.awareness raising and multi-stakeholder consultations as well as
6.sustainable modes of transport.