Park4SUMP: parking management as a game changer for urban mobility
In September, the new CIVITAS project Park4SUMP kicked off in Umeå (Sweden) just before the CIVITAS Forum 2018.
Funded by Horizon 2020, the project aims to integrate high quality parking management into Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) policies.
Despite good parking management proving to be beneficial in fostering sustainable urban mobility in cities, it remains one of the most underdeveloped policy areas linked to Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs).
Park4SUMP aims to change this by considering parking management as part of wider urban development strategies and, in turn, as something that not only benefits urban mobility but also enhances the overall quality of life in cities.
Good parking management can help free up public space, support local businesses, reduce journey times, generate revenue, and ultimately make cities more attractive.
Five Leading Cities - Vitoria Gasteiz (Spain), Rotterdam (the Netherlands), Freiburg (Germany), Krakow (Poland) and Trondheim (Norway) - will share their knowledge of barriers to and enablers of effective parking policy with 11 Follower Cities from across Europe. This intense exchange will inspire cities at all levels to act and promote mutual learning, regardless of experience.
The Follower Cities are Sint-Niklaas (Belgium), Slatina (Romania), Sofia (Bulgaria), Tallinn (Estonia), Zadar (Croatia), Shkodra (Albania), Lisboa (Portugal), Gdansk (Poland), La Rochelle (France), Reggio Emilia (Italy), and Umeå (Sweden).
Aside from stimulating further innovation in parking management and making parking policy proactive, holistic and more strategic, the project aims to help partners cities and to:
- Integrate parking management into their (future) SUMP;
- Free up an average of 10% of public space currently used for parking by means of participatory planning;
- Invest at least 10% of parking revenues into sustainable transport, active modes such as walking and cycling and develop more human-centred neighbourhoods.
The project’s partners will also train ten external follower cities outside of the Park4SUMP consortium.
The project consortium comprises of a selection of technical partners, ranging from consultancies (FGM- AMOR and Mobiel21), planning institutions (ISINNOVA), research institutes (Deutsches Institut für Urbanistik, DIFU), and universities (Edinburgh Napier University) to city networks such as POLIS.
External experts are also involved, including the European Parking Association (EPA) and the Dutch CROW/KpVV knowledge institute in the advisory board.
The website of Park4SUMP can be seen here. It will be built on the basis of the current PUSH&PULL website - click here.
