New SUMP Topic Guide on Parking and SUMP

Parking policy, and any potential change of it, is a highly contested issue in most European cities. The integration of parking measures into a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) can foster the acceptance for change and accelerate the long-term goals of the local SUMP.

To support this, the SUMP topic guide ‘Parking and SUMP - Using parking management to achieve SUMP objectives effectively and sustainably’ has recently been published by the EU-funded CIVITAS project of Park4SUMP, the only project that solely focuses on the topic of parking management. The joint effort of UIRS, Napier University, Mobiel21, POLIS Network and Difu includes the main project outcomes from 16 Park4SUMP cities and connects them with the SUMP principles.

The Park4SUMP focus topics of on- and off-street parking, parking strategy measures, and innovation in parking management are highlighted. This unique combination of project results, the SUMP framework and the results of more than four years of research constitutes this handy guide for city officials that aim to review or set up a parking management strategy in line with their SUMP.

An additional strength of the topic guide is that the phases in the SUMP planning cycle where potential parking management measures can be extremely useful are highlighted. This link between policy recommendations from the Park4SUMP consortium and the reference to the related step in the SUMP cycle is very helpful for the planning process.

The guide acknowledges that, for parking in sustainable urban mobility planning, it has to be seen not simply as something to facilitate parking a vehicle, but as a core and strategic measure for managing travel demand and achieving SUMP objectives.

The Topic Guide is part of a compendium of EU guidance documents, complementing the revised second edition of the SUMP Guidelines

Read the publication here. This and other SUMP Topic Guides can be accessed via the Eltis website here.