The EVIDENCE project (http://evidence-project.eu) ran from 2014 to 2017 and was financed by the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme.

The project sought to demonstrate the economic value of sustainable urban mobility interventions and has produced a number of insightful documents that will be of interest to practitioners and policy makers as well as EU funded projects related to sustainable urban mobility planning.

EVIDENCE has produced a large body of evidence to support an enhanced role for sustainable urban mobility in EU cities. This reviewed in detail 351 documents (out of 750 documents identified) which included specific evidence in relation to 22 types of mobility measures. This evidence is presented and summarised in a series of documents (see below).

These evidence reviews assist practitioners by:

• Indicating the net beneficial economic returns that are likely to be experienced from the range of interventions commonly found in a SUMP, including the range and scale of benefits.
• Providing information as to which interventions are most likely to work well together in respect of producing more sustainable mobility and providing economic benefits.
• Offering examples of effectively evaluated existing interventions through the EVIDENCE database and the Measure Reviews.

Key messages from the report 'Demonstrating economic benefits from sustainable mobility choices – the EVIDENCE project':

This report includes a number of messages that will be of interest to those in developing further policy and initiatives in the field of sustainable urban mobility planning.

…on sustainable mobility measures:

• Strong awareness of SUMPs and mobility management measures and schemes was identified, much of which came through involvement in EU projects, conferences, seminars, and training programmes.
• Whilst EU policy regards sustainable mobility measures as an essential requirement, they are still often seen in many cities as additional to 'traditional' transport investments. Therefore, they are often reliant on funding through external EU programmes (such as the former EU-FP7, LIFE and IEE programmes, and the current H-2020, INTERREG programmes).
• Interventions that introduce new capacity, or extend existing networks of more sustainable modes, will also benefit from some element of restraint being applied on the use of private vehicles.
• Some interventions are more likely to be successful when they are introduced in conjunction with other interventions.
• A shift away from new high-capacity roads or intercity high-speed rail links towards SUMP measures designed to create highly attractive living environments also has the potential to reduce congestion and pollution.

…on measure appraisal:

• Inappropriate application of a tool like CBA could systematically underestimate the benefits of sustainable mobility interventions, compared to the more readily quantifiable and monetisable traffic volume, traffic speed, and theoretical accessibility enhancements of new infrastructure capacity.
• CBA evidence was just one form of economic information informing the reviews undertaken here. Improvements could be made to current appraisal approaches to better accommodate and support sustainable mobility interventions. These are discussed in Chapter 3 of 'Economic Benefits of Sustainable Urban Mobility Measures - Independent Review of Evidence: Report'  (2016).

… on training needs:

• There is a need for more integration among already existing transport educational programs.
• In some countries there is a need to increase the number of educational programs on sustainable mobility.
• Training should be multi-disciplinary and the interaction between educational institutions and practitioners should be further encouraged.
• After their initial academic study, it is important to give the possibility to transport professionals to continue and/or broaden their learning experiences.
• EU-funded projects seem to be effective in changing the mentality of transport professionals. In some countries, the only training activities focused on sustainable transport are those organized in the framework of EU-funded projects.