Sharing experiences on sustainable urban mobility plans: the case of Lille Metropolitan Area and the Algarve Poly-centric Region

Abstract

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans” (SUMPs) represent a new planning paradigm with a focus on people’s needs. “Planning for people” (EC, 2013) will require cities to change from traditional planning approaches (based on motorized road traffic/infrastructure provision) to start developing integrated and collaborative actions using a “long-term and sustainable vision”. This paper is built on a critical review of SUMP related initiatives developed in two different countries that have different policy and planning frameworks: the Lille Metropolitan Area in France and the Algarve region in Portugal. France is the European member-state with the longest experience on developing and implementing the equivalent planning tool to SUMPs (“Plans de Déplacements Urbains” or PDUs). PDUs are required since 1996 for cities over 100,000 inhabitants through a national law known as LAURE (“La Loi sur l'Air et l'Utilisation Rationnelle de l'Énergie”) (Heddebaut and Grézil, 2006). Now France is dealing with the second generation of PDUs integrating the lessons learned during the first phase and responding to the new SRU law (“Solidarité et Renouvellement Urbain”) adopted in 2000 and aiming to integrate transport, land use planning and social issues. Although Portugal has important voluntary experiences on SUMPs already reported elsewhere (Arsenio et al. 2016), there is not yet a mandatory law for cities to develop SUMPs. More recently, AMAL and LNEC collaborated together to implement the designated “Actions Plans for Sustainable Urban Mobility” (PAMUS) in the Algarve (poly-centric region with a population of around 448 000 inhabitants). All the city Mayors signed, for the first time, a joint agreement to collaborate together towards sustainable urban mobility goals. This paper will discuss the changes and innovations these SUMPs operated in the two examples. Results from the analysis of the two above cases are expected to be useful to other cities aiming to develop sustainable urban mobility plans.