Contributing to a sustainable transition of Europe’s urban mobility systems is what the Partnership for Urban Mobility ultimately aims for. Around one year after having kicked off cooperating in a multi-level and multi-stakeholder setting within the framework of the Urban Agenda for the EU, the presentation of a draft Action Plan shows how far the Partnership has come. 

A Public Feedback, open from February to April 2018, allowed stakeholders to comment on the draft actions and to advise the Partnership on potential gaps or needs for fine-tuning.

In the spirit of further consultation on the draft actions, the Partnership used the EUROCITIES Mobility Forum in Prague on 25 April 2017 to present the Partnership’s developments and actions to other cities.

Jiri Vlcek, representing the Partnership Co-Coordinator Czech Republic (Ministry of Regional Development), led a workshop that focused on hearing EUROCITIES member cities’ assessments of the draft actions. Small groups discussed the draft actions in depth, with the following key points emerging:

The draft action on Urban Vehicle Access Regulation (reducing the diversity of UVARs) emerged to be very challenging as views of cities (and states) on this issue vastly differ. A solution supported by most PUM members could be to pursue a less ambitious action aiming for common standards of data, systems of recognition of (foreign) vehicles, and harmonised labels (vignettes etc.). It was held that UVARs had to be user- and city administrations-friendly. A toolbox consisting of a set of tools at cities' disposal would be a step forward in this field.

Regarding the proposed action on the reinforced uptake of SUMPs, all participants agreed it would be useful to have a better overview of existing multi-level governance approaches in Europe and (cost-) effective examples; the SUMPs-UP and PROSPERITY projects provided valuable input through their National SUMP Frameworks study.

As to the draft action on reinforcing multi-level governance, a study of best practice(s) and description of the current situation in this field was felt as needed; methodologies to be taken into consideration. The participants held that financial support from the EU level to explore this field would be welcome. 

While discussing the draft action on uptake of active mobiity, different guidelines and standards to foster walking and cycling employed by European cities were compared. The key messages were that minimum quality requirements were more important than minimum standards, that the human scale should be the leading theme, and that behavioural change is fundamental - which is why health benefits should be promoted alongside active mobility campaigns.  

What’s next?

• The input collected during the Public Feedback and at outreach events such as the EUROCITIES Mobility Forum will inform the finalisation of the Action
• The next regular Partnership meeting will take place on 12-13 June 2018 in Burgas, Bulgaria and will focus on the implementation of actions.