Andorra is a member of the EU Customs Union, located in South-western Europe, between France and Spain. Has an area of 467,8 km2 with a population of 69,865 (at July 2004). Its economic and demographic growth is based on leisure and sport activities (skiing mainly), and it has a thriving economy with its lack of income taxes. Its low population density and high economic level has set a transport system based mainly on private car, with only a few bus routes completely deregulated, and on a regime of authorisations - 50 years old in some cases- quite easy to renew. This system is causing an important decline on mobility conditions. So, in terms of congestion, access to the central valley takes more than 50 minutes for a trip of barely 8 km. On the other hand, its environmental quality and commercial vitality is becoming impoverished, despite the fact of being a key element of Andorra's well-to-do economy. Furthermore, transport legislation is almost non-existent, and public authorities have a very limited weight due to the country's tradition of liberalism. A new public transport system has been designed to make a real alternative to private transport: travel time, timetable, frequencies and, most of all reliability. The system must be flexible, adaptable to the changing demand linked to skiing, tourism and shopping activities. Finally, due to the lack of an adequate legal framework, a public participation process has been necessary; a process where all municipalities have been involved as well as operators, business associations, chambers of commerce, etc. This coordination exercise, difficult indeed because of the fragile equilibrium derived from the political interests at stake among the different municipalities, turned out to be a very successful one, which provides interesting and enlightening experiences for other countries. For the covering abstract please see ITRD E135207.
Abstract