PolySUMP - Event calendar

Planning urban mobility is a complex undertaking for any city, even more so when urban functions, people and mobility are scattered across different towns of poly-centric or cross-border regions.

Indeed, planning mobility in poly-centric and cross-border regions requires the coordination of policies and services of many stakeholders – transport and urban planners, local and regional policy makers, urban and interurban public transport providers – within and across different centres and administrative boundaries.

Organised by the CIVITAS Integrated Planning Thematic Group, in collaboration with the Poly-SUMP and the PUMAS projects from the European Platform of SUMPs,the webinar will debate on the methodology to develop a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan for regions with a poly-centric or cross-border profile, bringing together key stakeholders to initiate dialogue across institutional and geographic boundaries.

First, the Poly-SUMP methodology for urban mobility planning in complex regions will be presented. Then, two different experiences from cities and regions of the CIVITAS Forum Network will be offered: Thessaloniki and Central Macedonia (EL), Nova Gorica (SL) and Gorizia (IT) will provide an outlook on the challenges and potentials of planning mobility respectively on a poly-centric and cross-border region.

The InTraRegio Project held its Final Conference at the Technological Park of Fuerteventura, in Puerto del Rosario, Fuerteventura (Spain) in conjunction with SALT - Atlantic Fair for Logistics and Transport. The Poly-SUMP Project consortia was invited to present the project final outcomes during one of the conference sessions; "The present and future of intermodality" (see presentation below).

The InTraRegio Project is a coordination action funded under the “Regions of knowledge” programme from the 7th Framework Programme and aims to enhance intermodality in their partners' regional transport systems, foster the economic developments of the regions and improve European clusters’ capacities and performance. The clusters involved are Canary Islands (ES), Bremen (DE), Marmara (TR), Calabria (IT) and Ruse (BG).

The European Platform on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) hosted in Sopot (Poland), from 12 to 13 June 2014, its first ever European Conference; "Planning for a Liveable City".

The conference focused on the latest developments in the field of SUMPs and provided participants with the opportunity to attend workshops on hot topics in urban mobility planning; exchange ideas and experience and network with fellow planners and other experts; and find out what European projects can offer local and regional authorities.

ISIS - Institute of Studies for the Integration of Systems and Panteia NEA attended the conference on behalf of the Poly-SUMP Project consortium to present the latest project developments, as well as the key achievements in one of the project partner regions; Parkstad Limburg.

Poly-SUMP project's partner Trivector Traffic AB organised a Transferability Workshop on the 21-23 May, in Lund, Sweden, focusing on the transferability of the lessons learnt by the six participating European regions during the first phase of the Poly-SUMP Project. Together with the twinning regions, the workshop provided for testimonies of their experiences in polycentric planning and explored the potential uptake of the Poly-SUMP Methodology developed by the project partners.

The attending twinning regions were : Abruzzo Region (Italy), Norte Alentejo (Portugal), Obersteiermark-West (Austria), Maribor (Slovenia), Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (Greece), Northen Limburgh (The Netherlands)
and Botnian Arc Region (Municipalities of Lulea, Piteå, Kalix, Älvsbyn and Boden) in Sweden.

Trivector Traffic AB presented the preliminary findings of the Poly-SUMP in the international scientific conference on mobility and transport mobil.TUM 2014: Sustainable Mobility in Metropolitan Regions.

Trivector’s presentation “Using Future Search participatory technique in developing Polycentric Urban Mobility Plans: Experience of six European
Regions”, co-authored by ISIS, was presented on the second day of the conference.

The Poly-SUMP Project has presented its experience when developing a methodology for polycentric regions to overcome barriers and build a constructive dialogue when reaching a common vision of sustainable mobility among all stakeholders, in Volos, Greece, on the 5 and 6 May 2014. Poly-SUMP's Greek partner, ANATOLIKI S.A.,presented a paper at the 2nd Conference on Sustainable Urban Mobility, which focused on assessing ITS applications for informing passengers pre-trip and en-route, by addressing the theme of ITS in public transport and the human factor.

Autumn 2013 saw stakeholders from six European regions come together at the Local Future Search Workshops to discuss polycentric sustainable mobility action plans. The workshops were hosted by each of the Poly-SUMP project partners: Parkstad Limburg (The Netherlands) Regione Marche (Italy), Central Alentejo (Portugal), Central Macedonia (Greece), Heart of Slovenia (Slovenia) and Rhine Alp (Austria).

Local Future Search Workshops are learning laboratories in which all participants provide input into ways to improve the transport system as a whole; in this case creating and sharing a new vision and an action plan for sustainable mobility in polycentric regions.

Several actions resulted from this interactive new learning process: the Dutch delegates stated the importance of implementing measures in the fields of “Cycling along old routes”, “Sustainable freight distribution” and “Traveling with an e-bike to work”. The Austrian participants outlined the need to devise and implement an e-ticket usable on all means of transport, improving the image of public transport (particularly buses) and creating a regional planning report. Greek and Italian attendees shared a common action: more education and awareness raising activities, and the Slovenian and the Portuguese stakeholders agreed to improve the pedestrian and cycle paths, thereby working towards creating more accessible, more inclusive cities.

In general, participants were enthusiastic about the methodology, which offered them the opportunity to meet different actors and build sustainable and lasting professional relationships.

For more details about each Local Future Search Workshop, read the reports below:

During the European Sustainable Energy Week 2013, Poly-SUMP hosted a High Level Policy Conference at the Committee of the Regions in Brussels.

Under the title “Towards energy efficient transport in poly-centric regions”, the event addressed the IEE objective for Energy Efficient Transport to reduce travel needs and to encourage a shift of passenger to less energy-intensive modes. Poly-SUMP aims to reduce energy consumption from transport and associated greenhouse emissions in “diffuse city” regions - areas characterised by several centres, where services and goods, and therefore transport needs, are scattered in different towns.

Representatives from regions or poly-centric areas learned about the innovative methodology developed within the project to foster the adoption of sustainable urban mobility plans in regions.

The half day conference, from 1430 to 1745, was introduced by EACI Officer Mr Christof Marx, who presented the EU perspectives on urban mobility. Some of the most relevant EU projects on SUMP were also examined in more depth to inform participants about existing supporting tools for the development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans.

The event then looked into the Poly-SUMP project, its objectives and methodology and was followed by some practical experiences from two of the six participating regions: Rhine Alp and Parkstad Limburg.

The presentations from the event are available below.

See the pictures here (on Flickr).

The first Poly-SUMP workshop took place on 7-9 March 2013 in Ancona. It represented the first European Future search workshop, and gathered participants from eight countries in Europe.

Participants identified a common profile for poly-centric regions: high use of private cars, high costs for public transport services inside the region, the need for innovation in mobility services, and scarce coordination of mobility services at the different levels.

With the goal to develop action plans to build a shared vision on scenarios for 2043, participants discussed the past, present and future of mobility and came up with a list of 13 major actions, including: implementing better real time services at the scale of the region; improving cross border services in trans-national regions; establishing a strategy for smart polycentric regions to keep their competitive advantage despite rising energy costs and falling public budgets; lowering the costs of green infrastructures to encourage a transport shift towards more sustainable transport modes; and improving governance by managing the mobility strategy at regional level, with high involvement of stakeholders and population.

The workshop also offered the possibility to develop concrete recommendations and suggestions with the goal of producing a European Action Plan to steer the European mobility agenda in polycentric areas in the framework of the EU transport and energy roadmaps to 2020 and beyond (2030 and 2050). Unanimously, it was agreed that poly-centric mobility should receive greater attention and higher priority in the European agenda, through awareness raising activities and education.

For more information on the Future Search Workshop methodology, read our Methodology section.

- Video of the workshop (in IT)

- Pictures (on Flickr)