SUMI: fostering long-term commitment to sustainable urban mobility indicators in Europe

As cities continue to work towards achieving Europe’s policy goals, it is becoming increasingly important that systems for monitoring and reporting progress are put in place. Through making use of sustainable urban mobility indicators, policymakers will be able to assess the success of current mobility measures, as well as ensuring that upcoming solutions are tailored to respond to the issues which are most pertinent to the cities in question.

SUMI is an EU-funded project, providing technical support on sustainable urban mobility indicators. The project aims to provide a ‘Europeanised’ version of the comprehensive set of 19 indicators developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). In addition, SUMI also aims to:

• Support urban areas to apply the WBCSD mobility indicators
• Create a benchmarking add-on to the WBCSD calculator tool
• Build experience for the improvement of the WBCSD mobility indicators

The indicators were created for cities to perform a standardised evaluation of their mobility system and measure improvements that result from the implementation of new mobility practices or policies. A common, practical and reliable indicator set is crucial to assessing the sustainability of mobility in European urban areas, providing the scope to track progress towards policy goals and identify potential for improvement.

SUMI will offer technical assistance to urban areas across the European Union to pilot these indicators. Based on lessons learnt, SUMI will prepare recommendations to improve the indicator set. Through participation in the project, local authorities will be granted the chance to contribute towards the improvement of indicators, receive training and engage in peer-to-peer exchange with urban areas of similar characteristics.

SUMI aims to foster long-term commitment to sustainable urban mobility across European cities, providing the data to enable prioritisation and support decision-making. With the upcoming revised SUMP guidelines soon to be released, SUMI will offer complementary support to cities that are beginning and continuing their journey towards sustainable urban mobility.

For more information on SUMI, its progress so far and plans for the future, please write to:

Thomas Willson (thomas [dot] willsoneurocities [dot] eu), Project Dissemination Manager

Marcel Braun (m [dot] braunrupprecht-consult [dot] eu), Project Coordinator

In addition, Rupprecht Consult offer a summary of the project details.