Road Space Reallocation for Sustainable Urban Mobility in the EU: The balancing act between EU regulations and cities as urban space managers

International audienceCurrent discussions at EU level on urban sustainable mobility have confirmed the shift away from the approach based on managing traffic flows to an approach based on moving people and goods more sustainably. European regulations and policies will impact the future of urban road space across Member States and cities, especially the urban nodes along the TEN­T network. Cities and urban spaces have acquired, in this context, a strategic role yet to be defined. Although it may seem that road space reallocation is a technical and a local issue, the work done in the H2020 MORE project highlighted the importance and implications of thinking about the role of cities within the EU governance system. Cities are emerging as powerful urban space managers that not only implement EU regulations at the local level but also develop context specific policies and regulations to address the challenges they face. One example that highlights the transforming role of cities in shaping road futures in Europe is access rights. There are two competing perspectives over access regulations: a bottom-­up approach, that favours city­-led initiatives and a top­down approach that promotes an EU­-wide rulemaking approach aimed at harmonising access rights. This brief provides lessons learnt from the MORE project and recommendations to bridge the gap between the two competing preferences over access rights while promoting the role of cities as urban space managers