Marijampolė initiates Sustainable Mobility Plan

The city of Marijampolė has launched its latest sustainable mobility plan, laying out a sustainable vision for the city’s transport infrastructure.

The Lithuanian city is a cultural and industrial hub, and now looks to be a centre for sustainable mobility too. Marijampolė municipality administration has unveiled its Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) which outlines a proposed roadmap for achieving a digitally abled, active and environmentally friendly city where mobility is accessible and safe for all users.

SUMPs are strategic plans for cities and regions to shift towards more environmentally sustainable transport landscapes, while building on existing planning practices and taking local community needs into consideration. Indeed, cities across Europe from Brussels to Manchester and Turda in Romania have begun to implement ground breaking SUMP frameworks which integrate active travel, public transport and shared mobility in new ways.

Marijampolė’s SUMP agenda is a significant move towards zero-emissions and active travel, whilst taking into account vulnerable users and optimising new digital mobility technologies. For example, public transport e-ticketing systems will be updated, with 20 new electronic displays providing information about bus schedules and routes to be installed at stops throughout the city. Simultaneously, pedestrian crossings will be adapted for people with special needs, and will feature lower street curbs, safety islands, and bi-directional LED lighting to facilitate passage in the dark hours of the day.

Karolis Podolskis, Director of the Marijampolė Municipality Administration, stated: “Seeing modern trends and realizing that modern solutions are popping up in the world every day, we want to implement them in our city as well. There is a need to modernize the public transport system, adapt the transport infrastructure for all groups of society, and improve the conditions for sustainable travel.” (quoted by the city Facebook page).