Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning: Pathways and Links to Urban Systems

Project Information

SUMP-PLUS

Grant agreement ID: 814881

DOI

10.3030/814881

Project closed

EC signature date 6 May 2019

Start date 1 September 2019

End date 28 February 2023

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 3 987 862,50

EU contribution

€ 3 987 862,50

Coordinated by

STAD ANTWERPEN
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SUMP-PLUS (Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning: Pathways and Links to Urban Systems)

Reporting period: 2021-03-01 to 2023-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

A comprehensive approach to sustainable urban mobility planning and delivery is crucial to maximising the mobility services and wider benefits for EU citizens. The EC has recognised these challenges by encouraging cities to implement SUMPs and SULPs and by updating the Guidelines . SUMP-PLUS addressed these challenges, by developing a strong, rigorous evidence base through a co-created City Laboratories approach building on the strengths of the existing SUMPs and SULPs European practices and experiences. SUMP-PLUS developed new research concepts and approaches for cities to improve sustainable urban mobility capability and introduced them in the real practice in six City Laboratories in different EU cities (Antwerp, Alba Iulia, Greater Manchester, Klaipeda,Lucca, and Platanias)).
i) developed strategies for SUMP implementation for context-specific mobility transformation pathways, and supporting methodologies and analytical tools for cities;
ii) demonstrated how cities can develop stronger cross-sectorial links between the mobility and other city sector/system generating/affecting mobility demand;
iii) identify new solutions to provide increased efficiency and sustainability, in both the freight and passenger sectors; iv) identified and demonstrated new partnerships and business models;
v) developed strategies for enhancing cooperation at governance level and for increasing capacity building;
vi) improved stakeholders’ engagement processes. SUMP-PLUS also delivered a methodology and supporting analytics demonstrating how to customize the pathway to cities with different characteristics, capabilities, availability of data/resources and aspirations. Good practices and lessons learnt from the laboratories were transferred to a new set of politicians, practitioners and researchers through a relevant number of cross-fertilisation activities and events as well as through a three-tier sharing and learning community and practical guidance tools.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Research activities setting the conceptual frameworks were carried out. The innovative concepts and tools were adapted to the cities and finally introduced in the CLs. SUMP Implementation Strategies/Transition Pathways concepts were applied in Klaipėda, Alba Iulia, Platanias and Manchester. The framework concept of cross-sectorial links was applied in Manchester (health sector), in Alba Iulia (tourism) and in Platanias tourism), as one of the actions supporting the definition of SUMP vision/objectives/targets and implementation strategy. The identification of new solutions for mobility was part of CL in Alba Iulia, Lucca and Antwerp. The framework concepts of partnerships and business models were introduced in Klaipėda, Alba Iulia, Antwerp and Lucca. All cities applied the innovative engagement tools,engaging with local stakeholders and organising a number of events to support the achievement of the objectives of their CLs. The City Lab activities were deeply affected by COVID-19 emergency that forced cities to re-prioritize the city needs and the measures to be considered in SUMP implementation. The cities were guided in the assessment of good practices/lessons learnt as well as in the analysis of the barriers and drivers encountered during the development of the activities. An analysis of recent developments of the research with regard to SUMP concept was carried out in order to understand how it could contribute at expanding the already developed SUMP guidelines with the specific knowledge extracted from project activities. The main project outputs include a set of 15 tools, 6 policy briefs, factsheets on enhanced engagement, a Topic Guide, two Practitioner Briefing style reports, a database of lessons and knowledge within the City Consult Agency on how to develop and deliver SUMPs more effectively. These provide a broad set of guidance for city technicians and practitioners and decision makers. Attention was given to the maximization of dissemination of project impacts with an accurate selection of key dissemination channels and target stakeholders as well as by fostering city exchanges and transferability and by ensuring a continuing process of knowledge sharing, mentoring, learning, and replication. This was achieved through the online knowledge platform City Consult Agency. The website and the Social media (LinkedIn and Twitter) were constantly updated. The Follower Cities Group were involved into a number of workshops that led to the elaboration of specific Action Plans for the replicability of the CLs approaches.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

SUMP-PLUS produced new, practice-based knowledge on how to navigate urban mobility policy through transition:
1)practical strategy for SUMP implementation (5-10 years) specifically detailing how to identify the core measures’ packages, how to implement them, which are the key supporting activities in terms of management, resources and finances;
2)roadmap for the definition of a longer terms (20-30 years) transitions pathway to enable cities to accelerate the evolution of mobility policies towards more sustainable and liveable models;
3)examples of analysis between mobility sector and other city sectors acting as demand generation;
4)for smaller cities with limited resources/experience, the test of SUMP2.0/Topic Guide combining this with the use of simplified analytical tools for the exploitation of open data and the introduction of supporting activities aiming to improve governance, capacity building and partnerships through co-creation process and innovative engagement activities;
5)for more fully developed cities which are implementing/updating their SUMPs towards more sustainable targets, the provision of innovative methods and approaches to foster intra-municipal and across-levels governance coordination, capacity building, partnerships enforcement with private/external sectors and business models development;
6)demonstration of why governmental capacity building can be considered critical in transition pathways and how increased coordination at city/metropolitan level contributing to these processes could be a source of inspiration for other EU cities;
7)evidence base how well-tailored engagement strategies can support the co-creation processes related to SUMP implementation and create the conditions for enforcing of governance cooperation and policy alignment; new engagement tools were developed and implemented in cities, resulting in an innovative successful engagement approach of different stakeholders and supporting the generation of new sustainable urban mobility solutions;
8)a new set of guideline documents focusing on the main approaches and results from the project as extension of the available SUMP guidelines ; specific policy papers aimed to guide decision makers in their policy definition and set up;
9)success stories, video interviews of the six CLs have been collected providing insights into the challenges, findings and achievements of each of the CLs ;
10)a wide transferability programme towards the Follower Cities group and beyond consisting of expert training/case study example/knowledge transfer provided by the City Consult Agency, webinars, videos, material, tutorials uploaded on the City Consult Agency IT platform. Follower cities produced an Action Plan for the replicability of CL approaches each Follower has been paired to. A total of five different tools were selected by eight Follower Cities to be applied in the next future in their local context

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