Sustainable urban transport in Europe - what legal and administrative possibilities and barriers are there?

More sustainable urban travel highly depends on the administrative and legal frameworks within cities have to operate. In order to identify examples for "best practice" in Europe, a comprehensive picture was conducted as part of the LEDA project, funded by the European Commission's DGVII [1]. The study extends to all EU states, five Central and Eastern European states as well as Switzerland and Norway. As the project demonstrates, the legal, financial and administrative powers granted to local governments vary considerably by country. While there is rather tight central government control in some countries (e.g. the UK), there is much more "elbow room" in others (e.g. Switzerland, Scandinavia, Germany, Austria). Local authorities are at their greatest autonomy regarding their own local road network, e.g. parking management, traffic calming, local public transport, cycling and walking. The LEDA project also reveals that, in order to transfer "good" transport policy and measures from one country to the other, the different legal frameworks are less important as major barriers than political and public acceptance.