Urban Mobility Plans Throughout Europe: a Definitive Challenge Towards Sustainability

In Europe, regulatory tools such as local Mobility Plans or Urban Traffic Plans have been enforced for a long time. Focused on how to discourage the use of private cars and promote transit and non-motorised modes, these plans have been more and more oriented towards the enhancement of the quality of life in general, evolving thus into the so-called Sustainable Urban Transport Plans - SUTPs, i.e., plans that merge urban planning, mobility governance, social awareness and environmental safeguards to develop a vision based on sustainability and equity. Indeed, SUTPs are namely aimed at reversing chronic trends in current land use – such as urban sprawl, with its impact on transportation, and the unsuitability of central areas for development into car-dependent environments – according to a common regulatory framework. The paper describes how SUTPs are articulated across Europe according to four case studies (the cities of Peterborough in the United Kingdom, Chambéry in France, Ferrara in Italy and Pinto in Spain) which serve as cases in point to highlight variations and commonalities, both among the four national legal frameworks and the actual planning processes at the local level. Moreover, for each case study, objectives, measures and indicators used in the monitoring and evaluation phases have been analyzed and results assessed. Conclusions have been drawn, resulting from such benchmark analyses, on how to overcome some recurring barriers, and remarks have been prepared regarding the difficulties of transferring good urban mobility policies when dealing with different methodologies