Before starting the work on the next generation of your Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan
, you should consider new challenges and solutions for urban transport and mobility in your city. You have already adapted and reviewed the process during its implementation, now you have the opportunity to stand back and take a more strategic view of how conditions and expectations have changed - in order to optimise the planning process and measure selection for the future.
After identifying where you stand (Activity 12.1), you have to decide now where you want to go and which lessons learnt, solutions, and knowledge you want to take into the next cycle. Experience shows that each planning cycle helps to improve the expertise and to increase the effectiveness of the next planning round. A first analysis of challenges can influence the design of the new planning process and close the circle between the current and the new SUMP.
Aims
Tasks
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Consider new challenges for the future (society, technology, transport system) that could have an impact on the planning cycle and the SUMP implementation. Especially new developments of technologies and data usage might lead to major changes in the near future (e.g. Mobility as a Service, automated driving, big data, shared mobility).
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Identify how policies in other areas could create synergies with mobility policy (land use, energy, environment, economic development, social inclusion, health and safety).
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Get prepared to develop the next generation of your Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan.
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Consider which activities in Steps 1 and 2 of the cycle do not need to be repeated.
Activities beyond essential requirements
Timing and coordination
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Before starting development of a new SUMP (still within the period of implementing the current one).
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Consider reviewing and updating the full Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan every 5-10 years. After 10 years the entire document might be outdated, while the measures should be monitored and updated more frequently to increase the likelihood that the most appropriate measures will be implemented.
Checklist
✔ New challenges ahead for urban transport and mobility identified.
✔ Lessons learnt from current planning cycle ready to be used for next integrated planning processes.
✔ SUMP update concluded.
One of the major future challenges that will come to most people’s minds is Automation. Manufacturers have already started introducing more and more connected and automated functionalities in their vehicles. But although there is rapid progress towards the deployment of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs), the success of the transition towards CAVs will largely be determined by a good integration of this new technology into the existing urban mobility system as part of SUMP processes. There is a clear need for considering connected and automated driving in SUMP, but its purpose should not be misunderstood as uncritically endorsing the disruptive technologies surrounding CAVs and their impacts, but rather empowering the local authorities to critically review the anticipated technological changes and shape the future according to their expectations. It is vital that cities play a proactive role through a clear and popular city vision – ensuring that they are ‘technology-fed’ not ‘technology-led’.
Further guidance on how to tackle the future challenges of CAVs can be found in the Practitioner Briefing Road vehicle automation in Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning.
Next to Automation, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is widely acknowledged as a major future trend. MaaS can bring together the various new mobility options (sharing systems, micromobility, automation) to contribute to a multimodal system in urban transport.
The Practitioner Briefing Mobility as a Service (Maas) and Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning provides the elements to understand what MaaS is, to assess the readiness of a city and to explore possible operational and governance models for MaaS in Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning.
Milestone: Measure implementation evaluated
Congratulations - you have successfully reached the last milestone of the cycle
This point in the cycle marks the completion of the measure implementation and its evaluation, the end of the whole cycle, and at the same time the start of a new SUMP process. This milestone presents a point of reflection where you look back to the measures you have planned and implemented, the knowledge and skills you have gained, and the challenges you have faced. On this basis, you dare to take a look into the future. What can you expect of the next planning cycle and which improvements and ideas do you want to tackle in the future? Share the results of the evaluation and, if already decided, communicate your decision to continue the process and to prepare the next Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. This can take place in the form of a public event, where citizens, stakeholders, and the (local) media are invited.
The completed cycle and its successes deserve to be celebrated with the local community. You could get creative here and present the experiences of the planning process in interactive and diverse formats (e.g. a walking city tour, presentation of before and after, an ‘after movie’ etc.). Show the people what you have achieved together, what you can be proud of and what the future could still hold when continuing a SUMP approach.
