Dear reader,

We look back to a successful 2nd edition of the European Conference on SUMP in Bucharest in June. The very positive feedback from the participants shows that interest in the topic of Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP), in the experiences of other European cities and in networking opportunities remains high. The ENDURANCE team is happy to meet this need for support and knowledge exchange.

EPOMM, the European Platform on Mobility Management, coordinates this project because it received many demands, especially from the new EU member states, to go beyond purely Mobility Management (MM) and to offer support for SUMP. Indeed, MM and SUMP are closely intertwined and share much of the same objectives, as you will see in this e-update. But first let us give you a glimpse of the work that our large ENDURANCE consortium is doing all over Europe.

ENDURANCE national networks continuously expanding

The national focal points (NFPs) of ENDURANCE are working hard to build networks of cities and to support them with their SUMP development or refinement. We proudly present some highlights.

Northern Europe:

• Sweden – 7 cities
  In Sweden many cities already have developed SUMPs, using the national TRAST system (link in Swedish). The main interest from Swedish cities in ENDURANCE is therefore to exchange experiences in the European network on the implementation of sustainable mobility. So far seven cities, including the second and third largest in the country, have joined the ENDURANCE network. There is interest from other cities and a city network as well.
• Denmark – 9 cities
  The Danish NFP has engaged CEREMA (France) and Trafikverket (Sweden) for two sessions at the Danish National Transport Conference that attracted more than 300 researchers and practitioners. The focus of both sessions was the link between SUMP and new infrastructure such as trams.
• Finland – 4 cities
  In Finland several existing networks were invited to join a webinar on participation and the Belgian network BEPOMM was engaged for a training on the benefits of (mandatory) participation trajectories for SUMP. The third national meeting will discuss indicators and monitoring and will be part of a new two-day event called the ‘Days of Sustainable Urban Transportation’ organized in cooperation with several national actors.

Eastern Europe:

• Bulgaria – 20 cities
  The Bulgarian network invited 12 Romanian municipalities and scientific institutions to the 3rd national meeting in Ruse in June to transfer good practice to their neighbour country under the auspice of the Mayor Mr. Plamen Stoilov. So far, five member cities have completed their first SUMPs. Read more >
• Romania – 17 cities
  The Romanian NFP is preparing an autumn workshop, to present the experience of the first Romanian SUMPs. Their national network reached 17 members and other municipalities are interested in joining as well.
• Czech Republic – 10 cities
  Slovakia – 5 cities
  The Czech network joined forces with Slovakia and created the CIVINET Czech and Slovak Republics network. The network has organised three excursions to learn more about successful realisations of cities in sustainable mobility. These excursions are of course effective attractors of new members to join the network.

Southern Europe:

• Italy – 33 members
  The Italian network is now preparing for their third national workshop in October organized in cooperation with Civinet Italia,during MobyDixit 2015, the 15th Italian Conference on Mobility Management
• Portugal – 24 members
  In Portugal, more than 200 attendants participated in the last workshop on SUMP promoted in cooperation with the SUMP Platform and Civinet Portugal Spain, that brought together examples from both countries. Member city Torres Vedras is now starting to implement its SUMP, and has been recognized for its efforts in sustainable mobility with the ‘European Green Leaf 2015’ for its mobility, biodiversity and water strategy; the ‘Energy Globe Award 2015’ for its bike-sharing system Agostinhas; and the ‘Smart Project for Smart Cities seal’ for its integrated and centralised parking management technology.
• Spain – 9 members
  The Spanish network has recently reached a cooperation agreement with Fundación Conama that is expected to boost the development of the network to support SUMP development within Spain. Currently they are co-organising their next national workshop that will be held in October in the framework of the next Conama Local congress.

Western Europe:

• UK – 20 cities
  The UK network consists of 20 local authorities plus several consultancies and the Department for Transport. After two successful meetings, a third is being planned for 30 September in Birmingham, in partnership with CILT, Atkins Global, CIVINET UK & Ireland and the BUMP project. As SUMPs have been required in England and Wales since 2001 in the form of Local Transport Plans (LTPs), the network’s success has been mainly in spreading the word about UK and European best practice. They are also encouraging SUMP development and implementation in Scotland. Interestingly, some UK local authorities have started to use the European SUMP guidance as a way to take a fresh look at their LTPs.
• Ireland – 7 cities
  The Irish NFP has developed a template for integrating SUMP principles into the Land Use and Development Planning Process. A draft version received positive feedback from the network members at a meeting in June. The network has welcomed two more member cities this August.
• Belgium – 9 cities
  BEPOMM transferred good practises from their 15 years’ experience with a solid Flemish policy framework on SUMP to Germany. The network already held two bi-lingual events on SUMP.
• France – 12 cities
  The French network took the opportunity of the world conference on cycling Velo-city 2015 in Nantes to organise the second ENDURANCE national meeting as a side-event together with CiViNET Francophone. The theme was active mobility in SUMPs. Download the presentations from the Cerema website (in French). Cerema cooperates closely with other existing networks and national bodies such as the ministry of transport and the group of transport authorities Gart , to make the French network endure after the end of the project in 2016.

SUMP and MM: an obvious link

The goals of MM and SUMP are so similar. Just like SUMP, MM supports:

• a participatory approach;
• sustainability to foster economic development, social equity and environmental quality;
• the integration of policy sectors;
• clear, measurable objectives and clear evaluation plans;
• value for money.

Although SUMP and MM are interwoven and closely related, there are still a lot of countries where MM and SUMP are not integrated. For instance in Italy, where there is a long tradition of MM, it is not included in the traditional ‘PUMs’ (Plans for Urban Mobility). In the Czech Republic MM is an entirely new subject for the cities and there are no finalised SUMPs yet. Currently, the city of Litomerice (24,000 inhabitants) located in northern part of Bohemia, is analysing the bottlenecks in its transport planning system with the QUEST audit. The results will prepare the city for a complete SUMP, but will probably also yield recommendations for mobility management actions as this is an integral part of the QUEST audit, as well as of other SUMP audits such as the ADVANCE-audit.

Participatory approach in MM

Engage citizens to make transport more sustainable

To create vibrant cities with a good quality of life, we need the citizens to participate and adopt sustainable mobility behaviour. There is no use in building a tram line, when people are not using it. Soft measures are needed to reinforce and supplement the impact of hard measures. Even before new infrastructure is built, MM is needed. For instance, in Antwerp (Belgium) huge road infrastructure works will cause major disruption over several years. For this reason, Antwerp joined the PTP-Cycle project to encourage as many people as possible to make smart and sustainable transport choices for their commuting habits by using personalised travel planning. The ultimate goal is a long-term behaviour change that will last after the works. Read more about PTP in Antwerp >

In Poland, the issues of developing SUMPs and changing people’s travel behaviour are both high on the national political agenda (e.g. ‘National Transport Policy, 2006-2025’ and ‘National Urban Policy’). Krakow was the first city in Poland to adopt a sustainable transport policy in 1993. The policy recognises the need to reduce car traffic and includes the idea of promoting the use of sustainable modes. Krakow was also the first Polish city to implement a public bike scheme and demand-responsive public transport. These soft measures go hand in hand with ‘harder’ measures such as access restrictions.

Get citizens to support the SUMP

SUMPs need to have public support to be successful. In Bulgaria, where stakeholders in cities do not have a lot of experience with public participation, it is a central focus in the support that ENDURANCE partner CSDCS gives to the cities. Read more >

Some measures can be very unpopular before implementation, but turn out to be widely accepted after a trial period. In Paris for instance, the city decided to reduce traffic speed on major roads. In order to understand the impact of a 30 km/h restriction in a dense urban area on users, an experiment was conducted in the Avenue de Clichy. Before the implementation, users feared increased travel times and congestion. Afterwards, the new speed limit got a high acceptance (80% of respondents, including car drivers).

Negotiating the needs of different stakeholders can take quite some time. The city of Rennes (France) negotiated for three years to vary the time schedules of the university campus in order to ease the peak on the metro system. By applying this measure to large traffic generators in the city, they avoided a planned investment of €12 million to purchase three additional metro trains. (Source: www.metropolitiques.eu)

Sustainability

A SUMP aims to make transport more environmentally friendly, equitable and economically viable. Equity is about giving everyone sufficient access to the transport system to fulfil their needs, but also about a fair distribution of public space. This is described nicely in the French Report of the national research days 2014 (link in French). The further you go from the cities, the faster traffic goes. Those who choose to live far from the cities depend on the road network for the accessibility of services and other places. But this mobility need leads to rapid traffic arteries that cut through city centres, and creates problems of congestion and pollution. Bold measures such as speed restrictions allow cities to reverse this trend and give their public space back to all road users. Slow and active mobility thus become the pillars of a more sociable society.

MM measures contribute to these three pillars of sustainability: the environmental, the social and the economic component. For instance, cycle schools for adults can boost the autonomy and integration of isolated people, especially for particular target groups such as immigrant women. Offering (discounts on) pedelecs to the long-term unemployed can help them get access to more jobs, which in turn is good for the economy. Wheels to Work is such a scheme that runs throughout the UK, e.g. in Staffordshire. The city of Lucerne in Switzerland is helping visually impaired people and wheelchair users to take public transport by organising a training course for its bus drivers. The course helps them understand the day-to-day problems faced by these people.

Value for money

Of course a SUMP aims to make transport investments as cost efficient as possible. It turns out that many MM measures have a high value for money. Tom Rye’s presentation at the SUMP Conference in Bucharest demonstrated how a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) does not depend on average travel speeds or the amount of high-speed transport infrastructure. Smaller local investments, such as parking management, cycling infrastructure, traffic calming, and mobility management have higher benefit cost ratios.

The EVIDENCE project has been reviewing a lot of evidence in relation to the costs and benefits of sustainable mobility. They will launch their findings at the CIVITAS Forum Conference 2015, where the Summary Report will be released. Visit the EVIDENCE exhibition stand to receive your copy, sign up to access the evidence, and get a special reward!

MM, the essential ingredient to your SUMP

Just like a SUMP, MM touches a lot of policy domains (health, environment, transport, education, economy, etc.). And with MaxSumo and MaxEva, measurable objectives and clear evaluation plans can be made for MM measures in order to assure that all elements of an SUMP are fully monitored and evaluated.

In fact one of the differences between traditional transport planning and SUMP according to the Commission’s SUMP Guidelines is a shift from a focus on traffic and infrastructure to a focus on people and an integrated set of actions to achieve cost-effective solutions. So in conclusion, MM not only fits perfectly in the SUMP philosophy, but is a highly cost-efficient and indispensable part of any SUMP.

Upcoming events

• Creating Better Places for People: Lifestyles and Logistics
  Third meeting of the UK SUMP Network
  30 September 2015 – Birmingham, UK
  www.acttravelwise.org
• European Cycle Logistics Federation Conference 2015
  15-17 October 2015 – San Sebastian, Spain
  Cities, logistics companies, bike couriers and experts will come together in the fall at the European Cycle Logistics Federation Conference in San Sebastian to discuss how to make urban logistics more sustainable and to handle last mile deliveries as efficiently as possible. The baseline study of the Cyclelogistics project shows that one out of two motorised trips that involve the transport of goods (for shopping, leisure, work, deliveries, etc.) can be replaced by a (cargo) bike trip. For goods deliveries, this is true for 25% of motorised trips.
  eclfconference2015.bike
• MobyDixit 2015, the 15th Italian Conference on Mobility Management
  Includes the 3rd national ENDURANCE workshop
  15-17 October 2015 – Palermo, Italy
  www.mobydixit.it