The Wroclaw Transport Hub have been one of the largest and the most important transport hubs in entire Country. Wroclaw, the city with 634 000 residents, generates a very huge traffic, and also receives a large number of trips from the outside. The City have been struggling with ever-growing problem of traffic congestion- now Wroclaw is already the most congested city in Poland. According to data from ‘Korkometr Targeo’, each month’s delay caused by traffic jams amounted to more than 8.5 hours.
The Wroclaw Mobility Policy is a response to the question of how to optimally shape the mobility in the metropolitan area and how to solve existing transportation problems- among other things, the problem of traffic congestion. The document was created at the turn of 2012 and 2013. It is an integral part of the development strategy of the city and is consistent with the communication issues raised in the ,,Strategy Wroclaw in the perspective of 2020 plus’’.
The Targets of Mobility Policy
Wroclaw based its Mobility Policy on creating optimal conditions for efficient movement of people and goods in the city and the metropolitan area. It has to be managed while reducing the negative influences on the environment. After identifying the main one, the following types of targets now are listed in the Wroclaw Mobility Policy:
- Improvement of transport accessibility of the city and the whole metropolitan area,
- Strengthening the role of public transport as a base of sustainable development of the city and the metropolitan area,
- The integration of transportation systems of the city, the metropolitan area, the region and country
- Improvement of transport quality,
- The raise of mobility safety,
- Reduce the negative impact of on the environment and living conditions.
Moreover, assumed that the modal share of raises with individual transport will be reduced in favor of public transport. Percentage of individual travels is expected to be up 40% and public transport travel - at least 60 %.
The package of measures
For the measures necessary to implementation the targets of Policy adopted 15 interrelated main areas:
- Land-use planning: being the cutting-edge of ground development and possibilities of transport network raising
- Sustainable mobility forming: known as a willingness to influence the behavior and communication habits of users,
- Public transport: The base of sustainable transport in the city. Public transport in Wroclaw contains the systems of tram, rail and bus. The Policy have to, first of all, be focused on trams and rails,
- Car individual transport- The system with the biggest share. Road network in the city is really extensive, and there’s no need to expand it. The only need is to strive for more effective use of the existing network,
- Transport of goods- It’s indispensable part of the transport in city. Although, the problematic issue of admission traffic in city center needs to be considered,
- Air transport: Wroclaw-Strachowice Airport accelerates the development of the city and region. It needs to have a good integration with collective and individual transport,
- Traffic safety- Every traffic participant is entitled to feel safe and unhampered on the road. It will be necessary to promote the propriety on the road and to implement the road safety solutions,
- Parking policy: The most important thing will be removal of parking from the center of the city, encourage the use of car parks enclosed structures, and the organization of a brief stop at tourist attractions,
- Cycling: Man should focus on developing, building new cycle routes and provide the cohesion of existing ones,
- Pedestrians and persons with disabilities traffic: This theme activities should be based on discarding transport barriers, constraints and to give a priority to pedestrian traffic throughout the city,
- Organization and management: In addiction to integrated management of the transport system and coordination between all transport systems,
- Economy and finances: The most important issue will be creating of long-term investment plans and rational distribution of investments – eg. allocating larger amounts of sustainable modes of transport,
- Environmental protection: Crucial thing will be striving to increase pedestrian and bicycle travel in order to reduce pollution,
- Monitoring and modelling communication behavior: Makes it easy to check what effects on size and specifics have undertaken actions. The key is traffic monitoring and to improving monitoring techniques,
- Social dialogue: It’s absolutely significant to interact with residents on the mobility, consider their opinion and engage them in actions.
The planning will be accompanied by monitoring the effects of actions. The methodology of this process is based on the periodic ( once a year or once every 5 years ) analysis of selected factors related to the previously described Areas - eg. in the case of Cycling Area, assessment will be subject to the length of cycle routes or the number of parking spaces. Types of evaluated parameters are:
- The percentage (eg. of travel undertaken by car or positive ratings of given factor),
- List (eg. of actions or investments)
- Medium (eg. operational speed of trams in the city )
- Number (eg. of Parking places for bikes )
- Length (eg. of cycle routes)
Then, the parameters are compared with the previous researches- it needs to be checked whether in case the trend is upward (eg. in case of the length of cycle routes).
Wroclaw Mobility Policy, in which accurately and comprehensively clarified 15 areas on which to focus activities, has got a fair chance for success. In this case, processes that support Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) would be really helpful. For the future, the most important would be to define the process of the development plan and the location of individual actions in time. As a result, it will be easier to plan the budget and the division of responsibilities. Another very important step will be a thorough analysis of the transport situation Wroclaw and creating scenarios of possible transport situation in the future. On the basis of these conditions will be able to plan more accurately the most appropriate actions to improve mobility.
Photo: Fotopolska.eu, Autor: NEO