Transport roundtable meeting in Warsawa

2012. 8. 8.

On the 15th May 2012 under the project SUSTRANS Green Mazovia organized a meeting on energy efficiency in the Polish transport policy.  The meeting was attended by representatives of two ministries (transport and environment), the city hall, the public transport authority, the traffic and transport office, the environmental protection office and by non governmental organizations.

 

(You can download this article in Polish from the left side menu in pdf format.)

On the meeting the main obstacles and possibilities in working towards the following energy efficient solutions were identified:

  • Changes in the system of on-street paid parking zones;
  • Introduction of low transport emission zones;
  • Introduction of traffic calming zones;

The guests of the meeting agreed that the main obstacle is caused by the insufficient national law regulations.

Regarding the system of on-street paid parking zones the fee limit set by the national law for the first hour of parking is too low. It would be also fruitful to extend the limit of hours when paid parking can be applied. The local administration should have more possibilities to adapt rules in parking zones to their needs.

Concerning low transport emission zones it is important to bring into the law the legal basis for the creation of such zones. It would be also necessary to improve the system of technical control of vehicles.

Concerning traffic calming zones there is a need to make the technical rules of road building less restrictive or to introduce ministerial guidelines for the creation of traffic calming zones. The only legal traffic calming device is the traffic bump while it is not the only device that could be used.

The practical results of the meeting are the following:

  • a direct discussion with the ministry of transport about paid parking problems;
  • the idea of a letter to Polish city administrations with a request to support the proposed solution for paid parking problems;
  • the recommendations concerning low transport emission zones and traffic calming are going to be introduced on the meeting of General Directorate for Environmental Protection working group “Air protection and energy”.