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EU Urban Mobility Observatory

Italy

SUMPs have been regulated since 2017, with Decree no 397 of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport published in the Official Gazette. This was updated with Decree no 396 of August 2019, which was approved with the explicit purpose of promoting a homogeneous and coordinated approach to the preparation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans throughout the national territory. It consists of 6 articles (Art. 1 "Purpose", Art. 2 "Guidelines", Art. 3 "Adoption of SUMPs", Art. 4 "Updating and monitoring", Art. 5 "Invariance clause", Art. 6 "Amendments") and two annexes: "Procedures for the design and approval of SUMPs" and "SUMP  goals, strategies and actions".

The Guidelines refer to the following aspects:

  • standard procedure for the design and approval of SUMPs.
  • identification of the reference strategies, macro and specific objectives and actions that contribute to the implementation of the strategies, as well as the indicators to be used to verify the achievement of the objectives of the SUMPs.

The new approach to strategic urban mobility planning is strictly compliant with the European Commission’s SUMP Guidelines and is in line with "Connecting Italy: infrastructure needs and projects", as annexed to the 2017 Economic and Financial National Budget (DEF). The SUMP objectives must be measurable by indicators (as stated in national Decree no 396) to allow for the assessment of specific contributions to the achievement of National policy objectives.

National Decree no 396 establishes the mandatory adoption of SUMPs for all municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, excluding those belonging to Metropolitan Areas that must have their own integrated SUMP. In 2022, a reward is foreseen for Municipalities and metropolitan areas that have already adopted a SUMP, in the form of funding for rapid mass transport and cycling. Starting from January 2023, the adoption of a SUMP will be mandatory in order to access funding related to public transport and the promotion of cycling programmes.

A dedicated office at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport checks the coherence of draft SUMPs against the European Commission’s SUMP Guidelines and evaluates them, while requesting review, implementation, changes and improvements where needed.

Furthermore, the Ministry has developed a platform to check the calculation of 17 indicators, where input is mandatory for each Municipality and/or Metropolitan Area to monitor the achievements of key performance indicators (KPIs).

A “Vademecum" (handbook) has also been published, containing operational guidelines for the preparation of the SUMP, starting from the procedural steps provided for by the Italian Guidelines and with reference to the second edition of the European Guidelines (ELTIS Guidelines - Developing and Implementing a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, 2nd edition, October 2019). The operational guidelines enhance the experience of Italian municipalities and metropolitan cities that already have a SUMP, indicating some best practices for each procedural step. The handbook can be accessed here.

Member state contact: 

dott.ssa Carla Messina carla [dot] messinamit [dot] gov [dot] it

References: 

 

Last updated: 3 November 2022