Objective
COST 616 "Mobile Sources of Air Pollution in Urban Areas" forms, together with COST 615, COST 617 and COST 618, the COST CITAIR Programme "Science and Research for Better Air in European Cities". COST 616 has following objectives:
to contribute to an international understanding of the problem of social costs of traffic in urban areas, in various socio-economic contexts;
to evaluate the contribution that improved public transport systems and technology can make to raising air quality. In addition research co-operation should lead to the appraisal of related cost/benefit ratios and to the assistance of local governments in their decision making on the introduction or development of such costly systems;
to assess, on a scientific basis, steps towards an ecologically sound market economy by way of charging extensive use of resources and the pollution of the environment to responsible segments of the transport sector;
the international exchange of experience with planning tools aimed at reducing further dispersion of settlements and at achieving both a high quality settlement density and better co-ordination between settlements and public transport in already built parts and areas of urban fabric.
Current status
14 COST member states (Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Hungary, Norway, Slovak Republic, Switzerland, Sweden and the UK) participate in the Action. The COST 616 Management Committee divided the responsibilities and tasks within the four following working groups:
Working Group 1: "Alternative fuels and clean-bus technologies"
Working Group 2: "Assessment of the public transport and public transport improvements in terms of the contribution to an improved urban air quality"
Working Group 3: "Car-related policy measures including special zones and lanes for clean(er) vehicles"
Working Group 4: "Land use planning and its contribution to urban air quality"
Short Term Scientific Missions: L. Donovan of the University of Limerick (IRL)
Work planned
The COST 616 Management Committee discussed and approved at its last meetings the plan for the Final Phase of the Action. The following steps, projects and activities are foreseen: first, a Swiss national research project of P. GÜLLER will develop a simple learning scheme aiming to help the local authorities and other actors and decision-makers to assess the costs and benefits of different alternative investments, measures and strategies. The second approach will consist of a case study in Stockholm including the utilisa-tion of the Swedish model for an evaluation of experience with measures implemented in other COST 616 participating countries. The responsibility will be with F. SNICKARS and his Swedish colleagues. Other COST 616 Delegates are going to analyse and report on examples of innovative interesting measures and research projects in their countries. The four working group co-ordinators will report on the results of surveys conducted in the frame of the Action
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Call for proposal
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8022 Zürich
Switzerland