The 6th SUITS Project Meeting took place in Stuttgart, in the end of May. VTM Global is actively participating in updating progress to date on the Challenges and impact of SUITS on Local Authorities.
What is the SUITS project?
Securing a long-term reduction in urban road congestion is a major challenge for modern cities. The SUITS project is a four-year research and innovation action intending to increase the capacity building of Local Authorities and transport stakeholders and to transfer learning to smaller sized cities, making them more effective and resilient to change in the judicious implementation of sustainable transport measures. SUITS is one of the three projects of the EU’s CIVITAS 2020 initiative focusing on sustainable urban mobility plans.
The project will:
- produce and provide a set of tools on planning, financing and implementing sustainable transport measures for small and medium-sized cities.
- support the enhancement of the capacity of nine cities in seven EU countries to address efficiently the new challenges of urban mobility
- foster investments in sustainable transport.
How can small-medium cities achieve cleaner and better transport in cities?
Increasing the capacity of small-medium sized local authorities needs to be achieved through two major levers.
- through the stimulation of an organisational change process in the local authorities
By breaking down obsolete structures and working relationships to create an environment that offers space for creative development and productive cooperation.
- through enhance their capacity to design and implement sustainable transport measures
Mobility departments should be provided with methods, tools and materials suitable to boost their knowledge and technical capacity in specific areas e.g. use of open data and citizen engagement.
The prerequisite for supporting the capacity of cities to implement (sustainable) mobility measures is a clear understanding of what capacity actually is and how it is reflected in the planning and development of mobility measures. The very complex subject area and the numerous stakeholders involved in this process increase the complexity of exploring this field.
SUITS project applies a triangulation method.
This method allowed to understand:
- gaps/challenges, enablers and barriers during the planning or implementation of a mobility measure.
- requirements of cities and mobility planners in terms of support.
SUITS project partners
The SUITS project is based on the collaboration of a wide range of partners from 11 countries. The consortium includes universities and research institutes, municipalities, public transport authorities and consultancies specialized on mobility, information technologies and sustainability.
