Zhytomyr is the first Ukrainian city to adopt a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP)

Forward-looking, integrated mobility planning is a key tool to address urban challenges and ensure a more sustainable urban future in a strategic and meaningful way. On 20 June 2019, the city of Zhytomyr in the Ukraine adopted their Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) to become the first Ukrainian city with an officially approved Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP).

The Zhytomyr SUMP defines six priorities for mobility development within the city:

1. Strengthening the role of public transport.
2. Improving road safety.
3. Encouraging people to walk.
4. Promotion of cycling.
5. Parking management.
6. External accessibility of Zhytomyr.

Currently, the majority of trips in the city are carried out using public transport (45%) and walking (37.8%). The modal split of trips by non-motorised and motorised transport is 39% and 61%, respectively. Zhytomyr has a flexible public transport system, which efficiently services the cities highly populated areas alongside a well-developed electromobility transport system. However, the city infrastructure needs to be significantly improved and upgraded and the city aims to focus on walking and cycling infrastructure, traffic and parking management.

Zhytomyr has set 22 goals for the development of sustainable urban mobility and outlined 4 scenarios to assess the options for achieving their set goals, depending on the level of institutional capacity and availability of financial resources.

The key measures, outlined in the SUMP for Zhytomyr, include - but are not limited to: creation of the centralised management system for the public transport network and a unified dispatch system, re-organisation of the route network, creation of dedicated public transport lanes, traffic calming measures, further pedestrianisation of the city centre, construction of safe cycling infrastructure, development of parking management concept and the creation of transfer hubs.

The SUMP for Zhytomyr has been developed under the Project “Integrated Urban Development in Ukraine”, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, in close cooperation with Zhytomyr City Council, involving international and local experts. The SUMP development process complies with the Guidelines on Developing and Implementing a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan, and participatory planning principles.

A full version of the SUMP is accessible in both English and Ukrainian via the City Council website