The State Secretary for Urban Mobility acknowledged on Wednesday that the necessary transition from the car to public transport will only take place if there is an alternative, but expects that the results of the investments made will be visible next year.
“No matter how many times it is said that we need to change, this will happen when people really have an alternative,” Jorge Delgado told Lusa, admitting that there is still a lack of public transport.
The Foreign Minister is in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where he is participating in the 28th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP28), today devoted to local action, urbanization and transport.
In a session on sustainable transport promoted by the Mobility and Transport Authority (AMT), which today presented a series of recommendations to the sector, Jorge Delgado argued that “the reason we still don’t have real change is that we don’t have real alternatives “, but that it is also a time-consuming process.
“Since 2016, we have made about 4.6 billion euros of investments on the ground in the field of transport and a significant part, about two-thirds, is in infrastructure,” he later told Lusa, anticipating that “at the end of this period time Whole”, from 2024 the results of this investment will finally be realized.
For the person responsible, this is one of the many elements necessary for the transition in the transport sector, but because it takes so long it is not possible to wait until it is completed to take other measures, for example incentives for the increasingly less car use.
“Nothing is too early. Everything that needs to be done in the transport sector comes late. Some things take time to be implemented, but decisions need to be made and solutions need to be found,” he thought.
Another incentive is related to the cost of public transport and according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Portugal has already taken important steps towards making passes accessible. But he emphasizes: “Just because the pass is cheap doesn’t mean I will use it.”
On the other hand, the transition may also bring active mobility, and in this regard Jorge Delgado recognizes that in recent decades “the car has invaded the cities”, making them uncomfortable for walking or cycling.
“We need to recover the history we already had. Public transport complemented by active mobility, with affordable prices, with the possibility of integrating other modes of transport (such as taxis or carpooling systems). This is the ecosystem that must work clearly and in a very organized manner.” , he defended.
The Director General for Mobility and Transport of the European Commission also took part in the session organized by AMT, who considered that one of the most important issues in transport policy is to understand how far it is possible to go before it becomes a challenge becomes for people.
Yet the transport transition “cannot stop” and that is why Magda Kopczynska believed that one of the priorities is to recognize the concept of “mobility poverty” and integrate this understanding into decision-making.
Source: DN
