Encouraging good practice in the development of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans

•Reviews European national guidance on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs).•Summarises research on barriers to SUMPs and ways of overcoming them.•Identifies the principal remaining barriers to SUMP development.•Recommends a research agenda to help enhance SUMP development and implementation.

The European Commission's 2009 Action Plan for Urban Transport identified, as its first Action, the provision of guidance on Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. The 2011 White Paper subsequently envisaged that there might be a mandatory requirement for such Plans for cities over a certain size, and that the allocation of regional and cohesion funds might be made conditional on the submission and auditing of such Plans. Since then, substantial progress has been made in the development of guidance for the preparation of SUMPs, leading to the publication of guidance in 2013. The purpose of this paper is to review experience with the provision of such guidance, at a European and national level, assess the underpinning research and identify areas in which further research is needed.The paper reviews the background to the preparation of guidance at a European level and also at a national level in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Scandinavia, Spain and the UK. It identifies the weaknesses in the preparation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans highlighted by those preparing the guidance, and by the underpinning research. On this basis it lists the principal barriers to effective plan development and implementation. Subsequently it reviews the research which has been undertaken to overcome those barriers, the extent to which current guidance reflects the findings of that research and our understanding of the process of policy transfer. Finally, it highlights eight research needs which should contribute to overcoming the remaining barriers.