Welcome to the 2nd CH4LLENGE e-update!
Achieving sustainable, energy-efficient and environmentally friendly transport systems is one of the key aims in Europe. Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) are a strategic instrument to solve urban and regional transport problems while contributing to reaching local, national and European objectives. CH4LLENGE addresses the most pressing challenges in the development and implementation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans – participation, institutional cooperation, measure selection as well as monitoring and evaluation.
Almost two years have now gone by since the CH4LLENGE team kicked-off their work on improving transport planning processes. Looking at the progress made and results achieved, there is much for the nine cities and eight support partners to be proud of. The project’s SUMP experts have done a great job examining the four challenges and have drafted comprehensive working papers which you can download from the CH4LLENGE website. We have developed information and guidance on participation and cooperation in sustainable urban mobility planning and an all-inclusive template for developing a monitoring and evaluation plan. Further, the web-based Policy Guidebook KonSULT has been visually revised, relevant transport policies were updated and new measures were drafted, now totalling more than sixty measures. Check out the KonSULT website for further information.
We have successfully held the first CH4LLENGE training events including four workshops for the project’s Follower Cities, the first two CH4LLENGE Universities, which took place in Budapest and Brno, and the first event of the National Seminar series. Training documentation and presentations are all available on our website for download.
Last but not least, we cut the ribbon in a pilot ceremony at our Consortium Meeting in Dresden, Germany, giving the nine partner cities the official “Go” for implementing their pilot projects. The demonstration schemes are the heart of the project and we are pleased to present the first three pilots in this newsletter. Happy reading!
Susanne Böhler-Baedeker and Miriam Lindenau, Rupprecht Consult
CH4LLENGE Pilot activities
The CH4LLENGE partner cities will realise more than ten pilot projects across the four challenges. The pilot schemes are either a completely new activity for the cities, or they enhance the quality of already on-going measures and mobility planning processes. CH4LLENGE partner cities Ghent, Krakow and West Yorkshire Combined Authority introduce their pilot projects in greater detail below. In the following e-update, you will read more about further cities – for example Brno, Dresden, Timisoara and Zagreb.
Ghent: Institutional cooperation and data collection for closing down the B401 highway in Ghent
Author: Tim Scheirs, City of Ghent
Ghent’s urban highway B401, leading from the crossing of two major highways straight into the city centre, was created in the early seventies. The recently released Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan raises the question of the future function of this viaduct. This question intrigues a lot of Ghentians, it became a symbol for the future mobility of the city. There is little doubt that shutting down the B401 entirely or partly will reduce the number of cars entering the city centre and be a great leap forward regarding sustainability. Traffic would be re-directed through the city’s ring road. On the other hand: will the shutting down of the B401 affect the reachability of the city?
With the resources, knowledge and experience gathered through the CH4LLENGE project, we want to investigate if closing down the B401 is an acceptable measure for sustainable mobility in Ghent. The City is preparing a project in cooperation with the Flemish road administration and the public transport company to investigate different scenarios. This should result in an overall vision on the site and its surroundings and its opportunities towards the livability of the city.
A major challenge will be to gather traffic data which will enable the City to make the right decisions concerning new traffic flows once the B401 is closed. This question will be the main focus in the CH4LLENGE pilot. Thanks to the local elections, a public debate already has taken place and there is a large consensus that urban highways are not the right answer for addressing future mobility challenges. Thanks to the former discussions it became clear that this project goes far beyond an infrastructural or traffic issue. For that reason it will be crucial to involve all relevant stakeholders.
Krakow: Testing new solutions, tools and approaches to improve the city´s sustainable transport planning
Author: Tomasz Zwolinski
Krakow was the first city in Poland to adopt a sustainable transport policy in 1993 and implemented
a series of programmes and measures that referred to the use of space and the availability for different transport modes. The city’s transport policy, updated in July 2007, aims to create an efficient, safe, economical and environmentally friendly transport system for passengers and goods. For 2015 the city of Krakow plans to develop and introduce another update to the transport policy as
a major step towards implementation of the SUMP in the city. Within the framework
of the CH4LLENGE project, the city aims to introduce a pilot programme of public participation in the process of the development and approval of the new transport policy.
New approaches, tools and solutions in order to improve the city’s sustainable transport planning processes will be tested. Participation elements which go beyond mandatory procedures will be introduced. There will be more engagement of district councils than usually performed. Also it is planned to better involve the business s
ector, as for many new business centers providing parking for employees is becoming more and more problematic. More actors from the spatial planning field will be involved, and there will be better cooperation with the municipal departments responsible for urban and spatial development.
The aim of the pilot scheme is also to overcome barriers related to public participation, especially lack of interest among certain user groups, overrepresentation of other groups, different tools used and comprehensiveness of the whole participation process. With respect to institutional cooperation, there is a need to overcome barriers concerning lack of fluency of the process and different levels of engagement of institutions in the transport planning processes, as well as involvement of the new stakeholders within the process.
West Yorkshire: Evaluating the effectiveness of communication and engagement measures of WYCA’s cycling promotion scheme
Author: Alistair Ryder, West Yorkshire Combined Authority
The pilot project of West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) is related to the West Yorkshire SUMP and delivery of a major Cycle infrastructure project (‘CycleConnect’) and a supporting walking project (‘Best Foot Forward’) in the local district authorities of Leeds and Bradford due for completion in 2015/16. As part of CH4LLENGE, WYCA will evaluate the participation techniques used within the CityConnect project, from the initial ‘idea/inception’ phase through to the post-project ‘legacy’ phase to develop a toolkit of participation mechanisms that can be applied to other cycling and non-cycling projects. In the pilot scheme, WYCA colleagues will undertake a series of interviews, workshops and surveys with key stakeholders – both internal and external – to review how participation mechanisms shape and influence project delivery success and anticipated outcomes. The pilot project has identified several phases of project delivery participation to be evaluated such as the ‘project conception’ phase with participation to gain support and ‘buy in’ from key decision makers, the ‘pre-delivery consultation and design phase’ having participation with stakeholders to gain their influence and ownership of the project, and the ‘post construction phase’ with participation to ensure project ‘legacy’ and that outcomes and impacts are realised.
In December 2014 a ‘participation review’ workshop took place with key CityConnect internal and external stakeholders to understand their involvement and views during the consultation and design phase of the project.
Further information about the pilot projects is available on the CH4LLENGE website!
The CH4LLENGE Universities
Authors: Akos Burghardt, BKK; Iva Machalova, City of Brno
The first two CH4LLENGE Universities were held in the Cities of Budapest (September 2014) and Brno (October 2014). Both two-day events attracted university students and PhD candidates from various disciplines as well as young urban professionals. CH4LLENGE experts and invited speakers from the respective countries introduced sustainable urban mobility planning and gave lectures on the four challenges. The presentations looked at both European planning practices and local ‘hot topics’.
The lectures were complemented by interactive workshop sessions. In Budapest, participants had to elaborate on a measure listed in the city’s new SUMP, the so called BMT Balázs Mór Plan, while keeping in mind the newly learned approaches. It was interesting to see how the group members approached the tasks with various viewpoints and how their reasoning created a commonly accepted solution with a multidisciplinary foundation.
In Brno, students were asked to develop SUMPs for the two campus areas covering all four challenges. The students discussed mobility problems, explained and argumented their opinions and finally developed SUMPs that incorporated all of their ideas. The SUMPs were presented and then reviewed by the CH4LLENGE experts. The students were so deeply engaged in the discussions on sustainable urban mobility that the City of Brno has now invited them as participants to the SUMP working groups. These are part of the participation process for the development of the city’s SUMP, which will begin in February 2015.
What a great result of the CH4LLENGE University!
Both CH4LLENGE Universities were great successes and students were enthusiastically taking part in the lectures and workshops.
“A particular advantage of the CH4LLENGE University was the processing of topics in small working groups which gave us the possibility to get to know the urban planning related viewpoints of other professions.” Participant at CH4LLENGE University in Budapest
„As an environment communication expert I think that urban mobility planning is especially important. I had the chance to take up knowledge concerning transport planning. Active participation during the workshop is a real added value for my career. The participation of international CH4LLENGE experts enhanced the quality of the event.” Participant at CH4LLENGE University in Budapest
“The workshop was really helpful to me. To work together with the students from different fields was great idea. Discussing with other students and feedback from experts was interesting and helped me. I will definitely use some of the knowledge (information) in my work. Great event!” Participant at CH4LLENGE University in Brno
A look ahead
More exciting activities and outputs are to come this year! We will regularly update you about the progress of the pilot schemes and you will be able to download useful guidance such as the SUMP Glossary and the CH4LLENGE Curriculum of Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning. Further, we are pleased to announce that the first CH4LLENGE online course “SUMP Basics” will be available from 27 February 2015 onwards. The second course on “Participation in SUMP development” will start on 16 March 2015. Don’t forget to register on our project website. We look forward to learning together as a community!
