Margaret: And what path do you see for cities to adapt to climate change in the context of transportation? In which direction should we go?
Prof. Tomasz Komornicki: In Poland, multimodality is the only reasonable direction. We can't make demands for a full focus on public transportation, much less just rail.
Małgorzata: Why? This is a global trend.
Prof. Tomasz Komornicki: Above all, we have to take into account the specifics of the areas, as well as the fact that certain processes have already gone far enough that we have to adapt to them. We will not reverse the processes of suburbanization that have taken place over the last thirty years. However, we must minimize their effects. Providing public transportation to every household in scattered suburbs would now mean gigantic costs for local governments. It is important that residents of these areas do not drive (especially during certain hours) into city centers. They should be able to transfer to rail transportation efficiently and conveniently. Multimodality will also retain its meaning if we replace the car fleet with electric cars. Technologically, we will probably soon be able to eliminate emissions from transportation modes. It will be much more difficult to deal with congestion [the phenomenon of the greater traffic volume of transportation means than the capacity and available infrastructure - editor's note]. Shifting metropolitan passenger flows to mass transit makes sense regardless of the climate fight. For the suburbs, the shift to electromobility largely solves the problems.
However, it is important to reverse the motivation I mentioned at the beginning. Transportation infrastructure should be created to create the organization of space. Suburbanization should be concentrated along rail transportation lines (this was the case in the pre-war period in the Warsaw area). The road system and public transport network should precede the development of buildings.
Malgorzata: And how to increase transportation accessibility in smaller municipalities and cities and in rural areas where public transportation does not function well enough?
Prof. Tomasz Komornicki: Fundamentally, the problem of transport policy is that the level of territorialization is too low. Goals, and, following them, solutions, must take into account the specifics of regions, municipalities and even city districts. On top of that, when we talk about the need to develop public transportation, we often confuse two important goals behind this development. One is to encourage the abandonment of individual vehicles and thus reduce the burden on the climate and the environment. The other is to counter transport exclusion, which is linked to providing access to public services, especially for vulnerable groups. The two premises have a completely different territorial context. While environmentally harmful emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases have a global dimension, they are highly spatially concentrated. Its reduction can be achieved through specific actions in specific places. Large cities are such places. If in a large city we offer an attractive public transportation offer (such as subways or fast streetcars) then the so-called modal shift (that is, to put it simply, a change from a mode of transportation to a more environmentally friendly one) will be large and the effect in terms of emission reduction will also be large. At the same time, if in peripheral rural areas we want to provide service to an aging population with a new rail line, or through the purchase of electric buses by local municipalities, the effect in terms of reduced emissions will be negligible, while the investment and subsequent operating costs will be enormous. In such areas, it is necessary to come to terms with individual and traditional bus transportation, additionally introducing its alternative forms, such as bus-on-demand or car sharing.
Cities serve not only their residents; the demand for transportation within them is also generated by people coming from far away to use the services - cities serve not only their residents; the demand for transportation within them is also generated by people coming from far away to use the services.their area are also generated by people coming from far away to use the services; the scale of school commuting is very large not only in metropolises, but also in smaller provincial cities like Rzeszow source: S. cartographic study.Goliszek for the needs of the Regional Transport Plan of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship
© Tomasz Komornicki
Malgorzata: So what are the most important challenges for the future of organizing transportation in the city, which will ensure that the postulates of inclusiveness, accessibility and prevention of further climate change are met?
Prof. Tomasz Komornicki: Climate change is only one of the challenges facing the transportation systems of Polish cities. Not all of them are well recognized. Certainly the demographic challenge is significant. Many cities, especially medium-sized ones, will depopulate rapidly. We have no reason to count on them being populated by immigrants. The first statistics showing where PESEL numbers were obtained by refugees from Ukraine indicate that international immigration will rather strengthen the processes of population concentration in metropolises and their surroundings. In some of the smaller centers, this means the risk of scaling back investments. On the other hand, the residents who remain in these cities will grow older and their transportation needs will change. Technology is also a challenge. Cities today are trying to develop electromobility infrastructure. The number of charging stations is growing faster than the number of electric vehicles. However, the directions of technological change are not a foregone conclusion. Perhaps the importance of hydrogen propulsion will increase. Therefore, policy here must be cautious and flexible. We also do not fully know what changes in mobility will stay with us after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. The spread of remote work and e-services is unlikely to mean an overall reduction in traffic. We know from US studies that remote workers sometimes became busier. They organized their time worse and traveled chaotically in different directions at different times. As a result, they covered more miles than before, when they tried to complete their daily tasks on the way to work. However, even if overall mobility does not decrease, it is very likely to be less concentrated in time and space. This could mean less need for road expansion.
Margaret: Thank you for the interview!
interviewed by: Małgorzata Tomczak
Tomasz Komornicki - Prof.Tomasz Komornicki, PhD, head of the Department of Spatial Planning at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is involved in socio-economic geography, transport policy and spatial planning. Chairman of the Committee on Spatial Planning of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He lectures at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. Member of the Council for Scientific Excellence. Serves as editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Europe XXI and the monograph series Studies of the Committee on Spatial Planning of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has managed more than forty national and international research projects. He is the author of more than four hundred scientific publications, about eighty of them foreign. In 2010-2011 he was a member of the international team preparing the Territorial Agenda of the European Union 2020, and in 2006-2011 he was a member of the team of experts developing the Concept of Spatial Management of the Country 2030.
