The European Energy Agency recently put out a report and infographic on various transportation-related statistics from 75 European cities. There's some fascinating information in there, both good and bad. The European Energy Agency (EEA) picked out some great statistics to highlight in the infographic.

 

Most people familiar with the large cities of Europe would be able to guess that Amsterdam is the top city for walking + bicycling. However, interestingly, Paris and Barcelona come out #1 and #2 for walking + bicycling + public transport.

 

Furthermore, it's interesting to see that Copenhagen is so far below Amsterdam and actually ranks 6th for walking + bicycling. Copenhagen and Amsterdam are routinely compared for their biking leadership, but it seems that Copenhagen falls behind a lot on walking for transportation purposes.

 

The high percentages of clean transportation in the top cities listed in the infographic are nice to see. However, the line of small text at the top is worth noting: "while cycling and efficient public transport are becoming the norm in some urban areas, Europe's transport sector is still a major contributor to excessive levels of greenhouse gases, air pollution, and noise."

 

It also states that about 90% of those living in European cities "are exposed to levels of air pollutants deemed damaging to health by the World Health Organization's guidelines."

 

A lot more cities need to follow the lead of Paris, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. Also needed is switching cars and buses over to much cleaner electric vehicles. Improvements are being made—for example, bicycling's share of transportation increased from 0.5% of kilometers travelled to 7% within just a few years.

 

One key final point is that despite initial opposition to key efforts aimed at limiting traffic from petrol- and diesel-powered cars, many European residents end up seeing the benefits of such moves once they are implemented, and then want more. The EEA references Stockholm's congestion charge as an example of that.