Participation

A Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) sets out a programme with goals and priorities for the long-term development of a city’s transport system. A transition towards sustainable mobility requires active support from the public and stakeholders if successful, viable strategies are to be found. A dialogue-based participation process is crucial for example, for analysing mobility problems, developing common objectives, and selecting mobility measures. The engagement of citizens and stakeholders can create a positive foundation for collaborative planning, improve the knowledge base, consider new ideas and opinions and increase the overall quality and credibility of decision making.

There are also challenges to running an effective participation process. For example, a lack of political support to conduct a SUMP process that takes lay and expert knowledge seriously, inadequate financial resources or limitations in staff capacities. If stakeholders and the public are insufficiently addressed during the SUMP development process, planners might face unexpected interventions and miss opportunities for cooperation. Further, a wide range of involvement tools are available from which the planning authority needs to find the most suitable combination. Finally, inputs from citizens and stakeholders need to be fed back into technical planning and political decision making.

Are you curious to know more about how to actively engage citizens and stakeholders in sustainable urban mobility planning? Further information can be found in the Participation Kit and the various SUMP knowledge resources CH4LLENGE produced!