The Finnish counterparts of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) at regional level are Transport System Plans. In the Helsinki Region, a law requires that a Transport System Plan be drafted every four years (most recent plan here [opens pdf] in broad co-operation between the municipalities and the public through hearings. In other towns, there are no legal obligations for local authorities to implement SUMPs
The law concerning the administration of regional improvement and structural funding (7/2014) determines that the Regional Council is responsible for starting the transport system planning in the region, except in the capital area, managing co-operation within the planning and co-ordinating the planning with other kind of regional planning.
Almost all big and middle-sized city regions in Finland have Transport System Plans of their own. The municipalities of a city region and the local Centre for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment are responsible for the planning.
The Transport System Plans of city regions -and more locally the Plans of Sustainable and Safe Mobility, as well as the own transport plans and strategies of municipalities - are not statutory, but these plans cover many elements of SUMPs.
At a local level, mobility plans for employers and schools do also aim for the same targets as SUMPs but on a smaller scale.
References
There is no complete and unique document setting guidelines for the implementation of SUMPs on a national level, but an overview of SUMPs in the Finnish context is explained here.
The guidelines for compiling Transport System Plans have been stated in the publication 43/2003 of the Ministry of Transport and Communications: How to compile Transport System Plans – a process description. However, several separate development measures have guided the planning forward, and the guidelines are partly outdated.
There are different strategic sectorial documents supporting the planning of sustainable urban traffic:
- Environmental Strategy for Transport 2013–2020
- National Energy and Climate Strategy (2016)
- Medium-Term Climate Change Plan (2017)
- Programme for the promotion of walking and cycling (2018)
Municipalities and larger city regions also draft their own energy and climate strategies where the transport actions are involved. They have also guidelines for compiling the mobility plans for employers and schools at a local level.
