By Ylle Rajasaar

London calling

In Estonia, a sparsely inhabited country of 1.4 million people, it is impossible to develop sustainable transport without state subsidies. Under the present scheme, both the state and local governments support transport systems in cities, which house half the population. The scheme fails to guarantee countrywide mobility.

	CATCHING UP: Public transport in cities such as Tallinn can’t compete with the ever-growing number of private cars. Photo: YLLE RAJASAAR

Estonian Vice Minister of Environment Olavi Tammemae said in June that the real danger to the health of Estonians is their culture and values. “Estonia has developed only up to the 1980s of the previous century,” Tammemae said. “We are dealing with the problems but not with their roots. We are used to comparing ourselves with the rest of the world and as things are comparatively good, the prevailing attitude is indifference.” In this climate, one cannot expect a breakthrough in transport issues until the air in cities becomes too polluted to breath and the number of fatal traffic accidents becomes unbearable.

Valdur Lahtvee, managing director of the Estonian Sustainable Environment Institute mentioned the bus line connecting the cities of Tallinn and Tartu. The line serves the populations at both ends very well while ignoring the needs of nearby, smaller communities. People from other towns have to make their own way to a city centre because public transportation comes by their homes twice a day at best. The rail system in Estonia is poor, with the only remaining service being the commuter trains in the Tallinn metro area and between Tallinn and Tartu. Preference is given to the transit of oil. The Tallinn-Tartu express train is slower than the bus. Schedules change frequently to accommodate freight trains, which get the green light wherever and whenever they go.

Transport that lasts

Tammemae spoke at a pan-European workshop on Sustainable Development of Transport, hosted by the REC in Szentendre, Hungary. Running concurrently in Budapest was the World Health Organization (WHO) Fourth European Conference on Health and Environment. Environment and health ministers from 52 countries approved a children’s health protection plan, which took into account the many health risks faced by children that stem from urbanisation and transport.

Sustainable transport is a system that fulfils peoples’ transport needs while producing only limited amounts of waste, according to Lahtvee. “Such a system is characterised by light transport such as public transportation, bicycles and so on.

The biggest problem during the past decade has been the increasing number of cars, numbers of which have been growing more than 10 percent annually, and the parallel decline in the use of public transportation. Due to skillful lobbying by road builders, the majority of public transport investments go to roads development, including the widening and extensions of existing ones. And that supports the use of cars.”

“People love to buy new cars. They don’t see it as a problem since modern cars are manufactured with more environmentally friendly technologies and are more safe and economical,” Tammemae added.

Same mistakes

According to Lahtvee, Estonian solutions differ little from those tried in the rest of the world. Today, the focus is only on the symptoms. The country responds to traffic jams by widening the roads.

“The most critical step is a change in public investment and fiscal policy,” Lahtvee said. “Along with road infrastructure development, public transportation infrastructure must be developed. The state must invest in light transport in order to reduce dependency on cars in densely populated areas. Bicycle paths and light transport routes must be built.”

A differentiated excise tax for privately owned vehicles is needed that takes into account a car’s age, engine and type of fuel. The resulting revenues should then be invested in public transport. “We could consider the reestablishment of shuttle rail traffic which would give new opportunities to travel around the country.”

Lahtvee added that although electric trains, trams and trolleybuses are great, Estonia lacks power production. “Our electricity is produced from oil-shale, and as long as energy policy doesn’t change, there remains a contradiction.”

In addition to public transport development, the need for mobility should be decreased — people need services and jobs near their homes. In Estonia’s biggest cities, where air pollution during peak hours exceeds regulatory limits, traffic-calming measures could be introduced. But such measures can only be used when people have public transport alternatives.

“The most sensitive human organ is the wallet,” observed Tammemae. “We could work out different bonus systems for commuters. Pooling should be encouraged and city centres should be emptied of cars by directing people to use public transportation. The most difficult thing is to change established habits.”

Ylle Rajasaar is a Tallinn-based editor for Tasakaal (Balance)