Commission issues new guidance on sustainable rural mobility and tourism
The European Commission has released four new guidance documents aimed at tackling the challenges of achieving sustainable and equitable mobility in rural areas.
Across much of Europe, rural communities face a significant mobility deficit, which hinders access to essential services like employment, education, healthcare, and recreation, which are increasingly concentrated in urban centres. This lack of accessible transport options deepens reliance on private vehicles, exacerbates socio-economic inequalities, increases carbon emissions, and leaves many individuals vulnerable to transport poverty.
The SMARTA-NET Project
The guidance documents have been developed under the SMARTA-NET Project, which ran from 2022 to 2024. The initiative promoted sustainable and resilient mobility links between rural and urban areas, fostering knowledge exchange and capacity building among local authorities and other stakeholders.
SMARTA-NET produced four guidance documents:
- On Rural Mobility Shared Solutions, sharing good practices and knowledge to address mobility deficits in rural areas and improve integration with public transport networks;
- On funding and financing options for rural mobility, providing rural municipalities with practical resources on how to plan, access, and manage funding and finance to improve local mobility;
- On integrating aspects of rural mobility within Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans SUMPs, offering guidance on how to integrate the rural dimension into existing SUMP guidelines;
- On Sustainable Mobility in rural tourism regions, focusing on enhancing transport options in rural tourist destinations for both visitors and residents.
In addition, SMARTA-NET established the European Rural Mobility Network (ERMN), the first pan-European platform dedicated to knowledge exchange and collaboration among rural mobility stakeholders. The project has also delivered training courses to empower local authorities and rural stakeholders to develop sustainable transport solutions.
