What is a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan?
A sustainable urban mobility plan (SUMP) is the strategic document that defines a municipality’s mobility model in the medium and long term. Based on a rigorous diagnosis, it establishes objectives and a set of actions to move towards urban mobility plans with an emphasis on sustainability, road safety, economic revitalization, inclusion, gender, and equal opportunities.
A good SMPS must incorporate an analysis and diagnosis, a definition of objectives and strategies, a proposal of actions, as well as their programming and budget, a management plan, and an indicator and monitoring system.
Furthermore, strategic environmental assessment, citizen and local stakeholder participation, and communication strategy must have been incorporated transversally throughout the drafting process.
How we work on sustainable mobility plans for your municipality
We design and draft sustainable mobility plans adapted to the reality of each municipality, aligned with the Master Plan for Mobility and current Catalan regulations. We work in close collaboration with the municipal technical team and the citizens.
Do you want to boost your sustainable urban mobility plan?
We offer you a specialized team in sustainable mobility plans (PMUS) with experience in diagnosis, participation, environmental assessment, and alternative analysis. We will help you develop a realistic, applicable plan aligned with Catalan regulations and your municipality’s objectives.
Key phases in developing a PMUS
1. Preparation and identification of key challenges
Initially, the scope of the plan, the stakeholders involved in the process, and the steps required until its approval must be clearly defined. It is also the time for the plan managers to make an initial definition of the key challenges to ensure that the analysis phase includes all necessary tasks to address them.
2. Mobility analysis and diagnosis
The analysis includes, on the one hand, the supply and condition of infrastructure, services, and mobility-related information, and on the other hand, mobility demand, i.e., the travel patterns of people and goods, dependence on private vehicles, use of public transport, or active mobility.
This phase includes the main part of data analysis from various sources, as well as the generation of new ad hoc data from surveys, vehicle and people counts, inventories, etc.
The main problems affecting quality of life are also identified: congestion, air and noise pollution, road accidents, or lack of accessibility. The objective is to obtain a rigorous and shared picture of the real situation, which allows for informed decision-making.
3. Objectives and strategies
From the diagnosis, the PMUS (Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan) formulates a set of clear objectives aligned with regulations and higher-level plans. These objectives usually focus on reducing emissions, improving road safety, promoting active mobility, enhancing universal accessibility and social equity, and decreasing private vehicle use. The plan’s ambition is to build a more sustainable, safe, efficient, and inclusive mobility system to respond to the municipality’s environmental, social, and economic challenges.
4. Proposed actions
To achieve the objectives, the PMUS defines a set of specific measures to transform the mobility system. These measures may include interventions in public spaces, such as the creation of pedestrian zones, bike lanes, sidewalk expansions, or traffic calming measures. Improvements in public transport also play a significant role, with actions aimed at increasing its capacity, reliability, frequency, and intermodality.
Furthermore, the plan addresses issues such as parking supply and management, the definition of low-emission zones, the regulation of urban goods distribution, and specific programs for school, work, or tourist mobility.
5. Programming and budget
In accordance with the urgency of the needs to be addressed, the feasibility of the proposals, and existing funding opportunities, a phased program is outlined, organizing the measures preferably into packages that combine both actions to stimulate the modes to be promoted and restrictions on the modes to be reduced (push&pull), in order to facilitate modal shift and improvements in the overall efficiency of the mobility system. The necessary budget is determined for each action and phase.
6. Management plan and monitoring indicators
The Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) defines the best management formula for the actions and phases of the plan, identifying the responsible departments or bodies, as well as possible funding sources. It also includes instruments to ensure coordination between administrations and consistency with other territorial planning.
Furthermore, a set of indicators is established that will allow for monitoring and intensifying or correcting strategies and actions based on the results obtained in order to improve the achievement of the plan’s objectives. This also allows the plan to adapt to new challenges, technologies, and social needs that may arise.
Key transversal analyses during the development of the plan
Environmental assessment and health impact
Environmental assessment must be integrated throughout the planning process, incorporating an analysis of alternatives that justifies why the chosen proposal is sufficient to achieve the objectives of reducing energy consumption and emissions, improving air quality, reducing noise, or decreasing accidents. Depending on the municipality, current regulations may require following a regulated Strategic Environmental Assessment procedure.
Citizen and local stakeholder participation
SUMPs require citizen participation processes that allow for the incorporation of different social, economic, and territorial viewpoints. This may include workshops, open sessions, interviews, online consultations, or meetings with organizations, sector councils, and economic stakeholders. Participation is key to ensuring the legitimacy of the plan and enriching it with territorial knowledge, and to the extent possible, it should include political actors, technical teams, transport operators, organized civil society, and citizens in general.
Communication strategy
Mobility directly affects citizens’ daily lives, and most decisions will only be effective if they are understood, accepted, and if citizens feel a shared responsibility. Integrating communication from the outset of PMUS development allows for the detection of perceptions, needs, and potential social conflicts from the beginning, facilitates informed participation, improves the plan’s transparency and legitimacy, and ensures that during public consultation and the implementation of actions, messages are clear, understandable, and tailored to each audience.
Who and how should develop PMUs in Catalonia?
As established by Law 9/2003 on Mobility, a PMU is the basic document that defines the sustainable mobility strategies of a municipality in Catalonia. These plans aim to comprehensively plan all transport networks and systems within a municipality or conurbation, and seek to transform mobility in accordance with criteria of sustainability, social equity, road safety, reduction of environmental impact, and economic competitiveness.
Scope and coherence
The territorial scope of a PMU is the municipality, or a group of municipalities with interdependent mobility.
The content of the PMU must be adapted to the Mobility Master Plan (PDM) of its region and incorporate other sectoral documents.
Mandatory
Its development is mandatory for municipalities that:
- Have a population of over 50,000 inhabitants or are a regional capital.
- Have more than 20,000 inhabitants and are located within the scope of the Integrated Metropolitan Mobility System of Barcelona (SIMMB), according to the Barcelona Mobility Master Plan.
- Are included in Decree 152/2007 on the protection of the atmospheric environment. In accordance with the Action Plan associated with the declaration of Special Protection Areas for the Atmospheric Environment (ZPEAA) for nitrogen dioxide and suspended particle pollutants, all municipalities included in the action plan’s scope must draft their PMU.
Validity and review
Urban Mobility Plans (PMU) have a validity of 6 years and must be periodically reviewed.
Citizen participation
The development process must include:
- Participation of the Territorial Mobility Council or the Regional Council.
- Consultation with entities, organizations, and social sectors linked to mobility.
Strategic Environmental Assessment
According to Law 6/2009 on the environmental assessment of plans and programs and state environmental assessment regulations, urban mobility plans are subject to the strategic environmental assessment procedure, either in an ordinary or simplified modality.
Mobility plans for smaller municipalities
Although not obliged to do so, most municipalities have mobility planning needs for their urban center or their developments or scattered settlements. Often, the need to carry out a plan arises from a very specific need such as a lack of consensus on traffic directions, parking disorder, maneuverability problems, needs to restrict traffic in old town centers or around school facilities, guarantee accessibility for people with reduced mobility at least on the main network, conflicts and insecurity in the crossing, lack of clarity on coexistence and promotion of cycling, etc.
At VAIC Mobility, we also have extensive experience in carrying out tailor-made studies for these types of smaller municipalities, adapting the methodology and fieldwork to very specific challenges, in order to resolve the concerns that truly matter, without requiring the city council to have a large availability of technical or economic resources for the drafting of the plan.
