Attitudinal Trends

Current attitudes of European citizens towards time and speed prioritise high-speed and subsequently high-speed travel. This is evidenced, among others, by car manufacturing. Between 1990 and 2000, the average power of new passenger car registrations in the EU rose from 52.3 KW to 62.8 KW in 2000 which represents an increase by 20 per cent. Do you expect this trend (20 per cent over ten years) to be higher or lower in the future?

Another indicator of preference for speed is the diffusion of high-speed train (HST). HST lines traffic has trippled in the nineties. Do you expect this trend to be higher or lower in the next years?

The share of persons stating that access to urban public transport or intercity rail is difficult is below 20 per cent (16.4 and 18.5 per cent respectively in 2002) but on the increase. Do you expect this percentage share to be higher or lower than 20 per cent in the future?

The proportion of people who believe that the protection of the environment is a key policy priority is very high. In the EU-15 this belief was proclaimed by 86 per cent of European citizens in 2002 (as compared to 84.4 per cent in 2000). The respective figure for the Candidate countries is slightly lower (75.2 per cent) but still very high. Do you expect this high level of positive environmental attitudes to persist in the future?

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