3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
Latest data show that there are 275 kilometers of rail lines in Luxembourg (140km of double
and 135km of single track). 76 The state road network consists of 2,908km of roadways (161km
of highways, 837km of national roads, and 1,891km of paths used). Recent years have seen the
saturation of existing road, parking, railway, and highway infrastructures, resulting in
Luxembourg being the fourth most congested country in the EU. 77
As already stated, public transport usage is low (14.5%) compared to the usage of individual
cars (72.5 %) and active transport (13%). This car dependency is mainly driven by the following
factors: urban sprawl, lack of mixed-used urban developments, the centralization of economic
life, long travel times for public transport connections to rural and cross-borders areas, lack of
efficient national regulations fostering the use of clean transportation means, lack of coherent
cycle networks, as well as a strong car ownership culture.
Nevertheless, studies show the advantage in urban centers of active mobility rather than
motorized vehicles. For trips between 1km and 3km, the bicycle is the fastest mode of
transportation (even on uphill topography thanks to electric bikes). Urban travel speed for
pedestrians and cyclists is, for the first 500m, higher than the speed of cars with an average
speed of 4km/h. 78 This is interesting for Luxembourg, where 40% of daily trips represent less
than 3 km. However, Luxembourg holds the European record for private car use, with 60% of
trips below 1km. 79
Furthermore, to incentivize more public transportation and alternatives to automobiles, the
Transport Community (Verkéiersverbond) is setting up a telematics systems (“mLive”) which
will regroup the real-time departure times of the different public transport operators. 80 Realtime
data is already available for AVL, TICE and CFL and, by the end of 2017, will be available for
all the RGTR bus lines. Access to real-time datasets is provided by applications via an openly
licensed API in order to make the integration of the RT travel time possible.
Finally, conventional transportation modes caused several negative externalities, with major
consequences for safety and air quality.
Despite having implemented all safety regulations according to EU standards (drink-drive,
helmet, seat-belt, child restraint, mobile phone use while driving and drug-driving
76 EU Transport, 2015 Pocketbook, p.76 and 2014, p.46 and 55 / latest information from MDDI
77 (INRIX, 2015)
78 MoDu, p.145
79 MoDu, p.22
80 MoDu, p.159
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