The background
More than half of all Europeans lived in an urban area by 19501 . That figure currently reaches around 75% and it will increase progressively to over 80% by 20502. The rise in the number of people living in European cities brings about an increase in transportation demands. In spite of some efforts to improve urban public transport, private cars and trucks have traditionally dominated the traffic scene.
To keep pace with these challenges, the European Union has proposed a new planning approach to sustainable urban mobility planning (SUMP) that aims to address the transportation challenges.
The challenge
Every day thousands of cars congest Spanish cities, leaving air and noise pollution behind. People need to shift towards cleaner, more efficient and sustainable transport modes. Urban mobility cannot look the other way anymore and sustainable urban mobility planning is the best approach to turn the tide.
Municipalities in Spain are well aware of the need to introduce new urban mobility patterns and to use SUMPs as a process to approach and implement changes. SUMPs require new professional skills and national and local authorities need to take them on board for maximum effectiveness. The new set of skills includes: traffic analysis and modelling, multi-criteria analysis, communication with the public and conflict resolution.
The shift towards SUMPs has a price and the transition faces tight funding constraints. Local authorities must learn to do the most with fewer resources, streamlining the tools and headcounts they have at their disposal.
The action
At the request of the European Commission and the Spanish government, JASPERS hosted a training session on SUMP methodology at Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT) in Madrid. The training targeted urban transport planners at local, national and university level and took into account previous experiences in setting up SUMPs in Spanish cities.
This was done in the context of a series of SUMP training sessions provided by JASPERS in nine countries (the other countries being Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Poland) with total participation of more than 300 people.
We learn by doing, and this is the reason why JASPERS has designed a hands-on approach for interested public and experts, with specific case studies that present best and worst practice in SUMPs. Moreover, we also offer opportunities for knowledge transfer, fostering a dynamic network of professional expertise.
The results
During the training, participants in Madrid learnt through seven engaging modules about best SUMP methodology. It was based on technical presentations, discussions in the plenary, case study exercises in small working groups and final exam testing their knowledge.
In Spain, 45 people took part, including some participants from Portugal. People from mid-sized municipalities, government authorities and several universities improved their skills to apply the SUMPs approach in-house. CIVINET, a national expert pool, on which municipalities may draw when elaborating SUMPs, also presented its views.
1 Urban Europe - statistics on cities, towns and suburbs - executive summary. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Urban_Europe_-_statistics_on_cities,_towns_and_suburbs_-_executive_summary#cite_note-1
2 According to the United Nations (World urbanisation prospects (2014))