Universidade do Porto

The urban mobility became an international problem and several countries joined together in different consortium, signing international agreements and developing projects in a way that propose new standards to actual mobility, leading the transportation to a new sustainable future. Although such worldwide increasing effort regarding sustainable mobility issue, namely by the most proactive European cities, it is not yet clear why measures towards sustainable mobility are not implemented by the generality of local authorities. The main goal of this paper is to identify the different sustainable mobility strategies and perceptions by local public authorities. Such governance aspects are not yet deal properly and in a convincing way. The handicap is especially acute in Portugal where sustainable urban mobility management is still an undeveloped and scarcely studied reality. Through a survey to all Portuguese municipalities we provide brand new evidence on their perceptions and strategies regarding sustainable urban mobility management. Proxying municipalities ’ perception towards sustainable mobility by three alternative (though interrelated) variables – having a mobility study; having a mobility plan; and having performed a mobility related survey – we concluded that sustainable mobility is not yet a prominent issue among Portuguese municipalities. Of the respondent 19