Appropriate national policy frameworks for sustainable urban mobility plans

Abstract

Objective: This paper develops recommendations which would enable national governments to support individual cities in their development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. It draws on the work of an Advisory Group of the European Commission. Methods: National governments have the power to set the context in which cities develop their urban transport plans. However national governments often fail to provide the support needed by cities and differ widely in their approaches. An Advisory Group to the European Commission has looked specifically at the evidence, developed recommendations which the Commission might offer to national governments, and considered how national governments can be encouraged to adopt them. We consider the evidence on the barriers which result from inadequate policy support, propose a draft set of recommendations, test them against current practice in six European countries, and draw conclusions. Results: Most of the data used in the paper draws on the earlier work of the ECMT and the EC. The paper summarises the analysis of this information by the Advisory Group and presents the resulting nine recommendations and 20 criteria. It assesses the current situation in the six countries against these 20 criteria, discusses the differences between countries, and highlights the ten criteria on which performance generally is weakest. It concludes by suggesting ways in which the Commission might focus its advice to national governments, and in which national governments might learn from one another.