The European Parliament approves report on reducing urban traffic

The European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, has approved a new report that looks for new and old formulas to reduce urban traffic, and consequently, its environmental impact. According to this report, reducing traffic is very important because in 2005, transport was responsible of 25 percent of the pollution in the EU, urban transport is responsible of 40 percent of transport-related pollution and traffic jams eat up one percent of Europe's GDP. Convinced?

The Parliamentarians approved up to 27 measures to reduce the CO₂ urban traffic produces, such as telecommuting, walking and cycling more, improving mass transit systems, creating car sharing and car pooling systems. However, they also spoke about tolls in both highways and cities (that is, congestion charges), as well as making all car tax systems in Europe based on emissions. A proposal to limit the maximum speed to 130 km/h (80 mph) didn't make it through.

[Source: Agencia EFE via Econoticias]