A two-year project Technical Support related to Sustainable Urban Mobility Indicators (SUMI) was approved by European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport with the aim to technically support urban areas in sustainable mobility development. After the preparatory phase and official involvement of two Slovak cities in the project, the implementation of SUMI successfully started in February 2019.

The Sustainable Urban Mobility Indicators (SUMI) project will provide technical assistance to 55 EU urban areas to pilot SMP2.0 “Sustainable Mobility Indicators” developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Based on lessons learnt, SUMI will prepare recommendations for the improvement of indicator set, as well as develop a unified benchmarking tool for European cities.

A common, methodically sound and practically feasible indicator set is crucial for assessing the sustainability of mobility in European urban areas. Indicators track progress towards policy goals and identify potential for improvement. To be comparable, indicators must be widely applicable across Europe irrespective of city size and local characteristics.  The European Commission endorsed the SMP2.0 Sustainable Mobility Indicators as a suitable set of sustainable urban mobility indicators for urban areas in the European Union (EU). The comprehensive set of 20 sustainable urban mobility indicators shall enable “cities to perform a standardized evaluation of their mobility systems and measure the improvement resulting from the implementation of new mobility practices or policies”.

For implementation of SUMI, Urban Area Coaches with local knowledge have been appointed to provide hands-on support to urban areas in the local language. By singing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), two Slovak cities, Bratislava and Žilina, agreed to work jointly with ERAdiate team at the University of Žilina (UNIZA) within the SUMI project.   

The SUMI project proposal preparation was technically supported by the ERAdiate members, Dr. Karl Ernest Ambrosch (former ERA Chair Holder) and Dr. Ghadir Pourhashem. Currently at UNIZA, Dr. Ghadir Pourhashem and Dr. Martin Hudák are responsible as Urban Area Coaches for cities in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Further information can be found here.