Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning: The Role of Monitoring and Evaluation

Abstract

Sustainable urban mobility is an established target of policy making and planning in Europe. It is associated with, among others, better air quality, less noise disturbance, increased safety and the quality of public space. In this regard, one of the EU Commission’s main tools to reach sustainable urban mobility, the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP), require the explicit integration of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E). Yet, European cities face common barriers when it comes to materialising M&E in practice. To avoid or overcome these barriers, this paper argues for a feasibility approach to M&E of sustainable urban mobility measures. We draw this conclusion on the basis of process as well as impact evaluation data from measures transforming caroriented neighbourhoods into children-friendly neighbourhoods in seven European cities collected during the Horizon 2020-project Metamorphosis. We then give advice on how to design and integrate a feasible M&E scheme.