Sustainable mobility programme The framework for a transport system that is geared to sustainable development must be developed further. Modal shift is an area of emphasis and is designed to apply market mechanisms to encourage the shift of transalpine freight traffic from the roads to the railways (e.g. by means of the new alpine crossing exchange, currently under development) and to balance the external costs of transport. Where air travel is concerned, the focus is on inclusion in an international emissions trading system. The Service Centre for Innovative and Sustainable Mobility4 will support projects that develop and test new ideas for and marketable approaches to sustainable mobility. The following innovative examples show how this can be implemented:
• Transfer from road to rail: the heavy vehicle fee (HVF5) introduced in 2001, is levied on trucks with a total weight of more than 3.5 tonnes. The HVF resulted in a decrease in HGV traffic across the Alps (1.27 million trips in 2008 against 1.4 million in 2000) and the preservation of a high level of rail traffic.6
• To reduce CO2 emissions from road traffic, fuels with a favourable life cycle assessment such as biogas, bioethanol and biodiesel have been exempted from mineral oil tax, and taxes on natural and liquefied petroleum gas have been lowered.
• Among the measures envisaged under the action plan on particulate matter (PM10) is the reimbursement of mineral oil tax to licensed transport companies that equip their diesel powered vehicles with particle filters.
• The “criteria for energy-efficient and low-emission vehicles” (KeeF), permitting an assessment of the environmental performance of cars, will provide a basis for further development of the existing energy label scheme. A new environmental label is to be introduced in 2010.
Leisure traffic Leisure traffic is responsible for 41% of all trips, 44.7% of the total distance covered and 51.5% of all time spent travelling. At federal level an interdependent package of various measures will be required to implement a sustainable leisure transport policy. It is for example necessary to pursue a reduction of individual motorized transport in favour of public transport and non motorised transport. Shorter trips could be also encouraged (by attractive destinations nearby, combined forms of mobility). It is also important to provide attractive, competitive and marketable ranges of leisure transport services. Incentives and attractive offers should be used and should take precedence over bans or obligatory measures. In this regard, the Confederation has an active role to play in a network of key players from cantons and towns/cities, and from associations, pressure groups and private industry.