New release: European cities and regions' SUMP Needs Assessment Report

The Needs Assessment Report

Knowledge exists within the SUMP community on the reasons why take-up is low and on the challenges and barriers to SUMP preparation and implementation. However, until the needs assessment was conducted, there had been no systematic in-depth empirical assessment of SUMP take-up in Europe.

The survey's guiding questions were:

• What is the current state of play for SUMP development in European cities?
• What motivates cites to develop SUMPs?
• What barriers hamper progress?
• Where is SUMP uptake low?
• What priorities are shaping cities’ SUMPs?
• What support do cities need to get their SUMPs up and running?

Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were utilised to answer these.

Some of the key findings to emerge were that:

• Cities require assistance when selecting measures in newer policy areas, such as shared mobility services and automation.
• In more traditional policy areas like cycling and road safety, cities already have the necessary understanding, but need support in implementing measures.
• Good practice examples and peer-to-peer learning are the types of support that cities most desire.
• Only 6% of surveyed cities said they did not need any assistance.
• Access to funding and addressing transport challenges are the two key drivers for cities developing SUMPs.

Download the main results report here.

Download the full needs assessment report here.

The research that led to these results was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 690669 (SUMPs-UP project). For more information about SUMPs-UP project, please visit the project website.