“Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans”: Key Concepts and a Critical Revision on SUMPs Guidelines

Vincenza Torrisi

First

;Chiara Garau

Second

;Matteo, Ignaccolo

Penultimate

;Giuseppe, Inturri

Last

2020-01-01

---

Abstract

Cities play a fundamental role not only in the growth processes under the sustainability paradigm, but also as a driving-force behind economy and they constitute places of connectivity and innovation. More than two thirds of the European population live in urban areas and this percentage is continuously growing. Therefore, cities are fundamental hubs of the transport system, since most journeys start or end within urban areas. The direct consequence is that many of the negative transport externalities, such as congestion, road accidents and pollution, have the greatest impacts in these contexts. The European Commission emphasized integrated planning at all mobility level to enhance new forms of sustainable urban mobility, in order to reduce externalities associated with transport sector. In this view, the aim of this paper is to analyze the European guidelines for the development and the implementation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) and the corresponding Italian guidelines for the preparation of so-called “Piani Urbani della Mobilità Sostenibile” (PUMS). A comparative evaluation is proposed to emphasize the new paradigm of sustainable transport planning and highlight critical evidence between the European legal tools and their transposition at national level, also in the light of their recent updates. The results of this analysis lay the basis for the critical assessment of best practices and the review of related SUMP, in order to identify the key elements to assist traffic planners and managers in their decision-making procedures for the identification of successful strategies and the implementation of effective actions towards sustainable mobility.