From vision to implementation: Developing sustainable urban mobility plans

The paper examines why Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) often fall short of delivering substantial changes in urban transport and climate performance, and how their effectiveness can be improved. Drawing on a 2023 survey of transport planners in ten cities participating in the EU project REALLOCATE, it analyses current SUMP practice regarding spatial coverage, time frames, goal setting, targets, implementation, and monitoring. The findings reveal weak quantification of climate and mobility targets, limited coverage of functional urban areas, and a significant imple-mentation gap, particularly for politically sensitive "push" measures that restrict car use. Monitoring is uneven and sometimes leads to a weakening of targets rather than to policy adjustment. To strengthen the impact of SUMPs, the paper proposes a vision-led transport planning approach that includes backcasting, SMART targets, and quantitative impact assessments before and after implementation. It provides guidance on the selection of measures and calls for integrated push-and-pull packages. National and regional governments can support the development of vision-led SUMPs by combining funding and technical assistance with regulatory minimum standards. Addi-tionally, the paper introduces "Climate Mobility Plans" as a tool to enhance the effectiveness of transport policies in climate mitigation. Overall, the paper demonstrates that achieving sustainability in transport requires a vision-led plan-ning approach supported by coordinated action across levels of government. While municipalities play a central role, national and regional governments can significantly improve the performance of SUMPs.