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[...] The second item deals with the acceptability of the measure by the citizens and more generally by the citizens (Ofev 2019). Opposing arguments to such a policy are solicited, referring both to the pollution threshold and to broader rhetorics that are inscribed in an interdisciplinary framework of public policy reflection. In the first item, the substantial content is quite extensive and it is possible to divide the addressees into two sections: on the one hand, public bodies and administrations; on the other hand, civil society and militant associations. [...]
[...] Given that walkability affects the entire population, it is clear that these issues cannot grow over the years and public decisions. The strength of environmental policies implemented in most developed countries, and especially in Western Europe, is closely linked to the development of walkability in city centers and the progressive banishment of heavily polluting vehicles, such as sport utility vehicles (SUVs), depending on the current political majorities (left, right, or center) and local and national socio-environmental concerns. Bibliography Part 1 - A European sources: - European Union: European Environment Agency: 'Transport and Environment Report: Decarbonising Road Transport - The Role of Vehicles, Fuels and Transport Demand', 2021: https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/transport-and-environment-report-2021 - France: Cerema (Centre for Studies and Expertise on Risks, Environment, Mobility and Land Use) Report: '70 km/h: Study of the Reduction of Speed on Local Interurban Networks, Study of Issues' p.: https://www.onisr.securite-routiere.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2019-02/Zones70_CETENC_%C3%A9tude%20d%27enjeux_VF_21-03-2014.pdf - France: Agence de la transition écologique (Ademe): 'Impacts of Speed Limits on Air Quality, Climate, Energy and Noise', 2014: https://librairie.ademe.fr/mobilite-et-transport/3637-impacts-des-limitations-de-vitesse-sur-la-qualite-de-l-air-le-climat-l-energie-et-le-bruit.html#:~:text=de%20l'air.-,Conclusion%20%3A%20au%2Ddessus%20de%2070%20km%2Fh%2C%20les,cet%20effet%20est%20plut%C3%B4t%20n%C3%A9gatif. [...]
[...] In as much as walkability induces special arrangements, quantitative indices have been developed in order to make the review of these urban arrangements more objective for public authorities and local administrations. This is the case, for example, in the case of evaluating walkability in relation to environmental law and its ability to achieve objectives set by environmental policies of specific legislative environments (Jeong 2023). In a case more centered on urban planning as such and through geographical and urban planning projects, multidimensional analyses of walkability are solicited in their quantification (Erturan 2023), as well as through social cohesion and social mixity that pedestrian accessibility policies in the city center are supposed to promote (Sonta and Jiang 2023), including in its relation to the strengthening of the social sciences approach to the theme of walkability (Bocquet 2019). [...]
[...] What are the stakes and effects of a city in Switzerland reducing its speed limit to 30km/h in terms of public health? The policy of reducing speed is inscribed, beyond the Swiss regulatory and political field, in a will to measure the effects and impacts of the danger of driving a car and the connected risks of pollution. These concerns, gathered under a public health index (both by preventing road mortality and by preventing peaks of greenhouse gas emissions), are gradually structured in public debates (Cerema 2014). [...]
[...] This distinction, although it needs to be refined on a case-by-case basis, presents subtleties that need to be noted: while associations can oppose the legislative decisions of public authorities frontally, the solicitation of consulting firms and audit firms (Adrian Davis Associates 2018) has the effect of 'smoothing' decisions and making them more acceptable in advance to the eyes of public opinion. The second item deals with pedestrian accessibility (or walkability). Well-documented through the issuance of reports and public documents (Ademe 2022; ETRAC UK 2001; EPA US 2021), pedestrian accessibility is, however, a less exploited subject than that of road pollution and its connection to the reduction of speed by public policies. This intrinsic limitation of the subject (Social Policy Research 2022) is no doubt due to its correlation with other concerns of broader scope. [...]
