The policies and measures defined in a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) should address comprehensively all modes and forms of transport in the entire urban agglomeration, including public and private, passenger and freight, motorised and non-motorised, moving and parking.
Such a mobility plan has to rely on a long-term vision for the development of transport and mobility of the entire urban agglomeration. A Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan focuses on creating a sustainable urban transport system by facilitating the access of people to jobs and services, improving safety and security, reducing pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the excessive energy consumption, increasing cost-efficiency for the transport of people and freight and increasing the attractiveness and quality of the urban environment.
A Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan is a method of approaching transport-related problems in urban areas. Starting from the practices and regulations existing in Member States, its basic characteristics have to follow and apply a participative approach, a pledge for sustainability, an integrated approach, a clear vision, appropriate objectives and targets, as well as a review of transport costs and benefits.
“Through an appropriate citizen and stakeholder involvement, decisions for or against specific urban mobility measures as well as the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan itself can obtain a significant level of “public legitimacy”, show the guidelines on the implementation of such a mobility plan.
In many situations, the development of a plan is dictated by a department for urban mobility or transport. However, the relevance of the policies for elaborating the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan is not limited to mobility and transport, its scope also including implication in the planning process of local and regional departments (dedicated to land planning, environment, economic development and social inclusion). It is a true challenge to solve the integration and cooperation deficits, but at the same time it is the main source for innovation and improvement. The European Commission seeks to accelerate the large scale implication in the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans of the local and regional authorities in Europe by wide range information on the scope, content and advantages of these plans.
The European cities have implemented a series of sustainable mobility plans, either referring to urban rail transport, bus transport or the development of new bicycle lanes and pedestrian areas. All plans aimed to reduce car dependency and to eliminate cars from the city centre are important for the citizens of a city and for its image.
Among the cities which implemented such sustainable mobility plans there is Koprivnica (Croatia), Budapest, Odense (Denmark), Paris, Lille, Timişoara, Cluj – Napoca, Oradea, Cambridge, London, Gent, Porto, Brno, Toulouse, Zagreb, Eindhoven, Aachen, Erfurt, Zaragoza, Turku, Helsinki, Örebro (Sweden), Nottingham, Sheffield, Parma, to name just a few.
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