Indicators of sustainable urban mobility
The goal of the project was to develop a broadly based system of indicators for sustainable urban mobility, supported by local governments, and to make this available to them in the form of a practical guide. Against this backdrop, the project developed a comprehensive overview of relevant objectives and existing indicators, analyzed the SUMI set (“Sustainable Urban Mobility Indicators”), and assessed the availability of data for German municipalities. Particular emphasis was also placed on taking into account the needs and preferences of local governments, which is why a comprehensive survey and an in-person workshop were conducted with local governments and representatives of local government associations and federal states.
Building on this, a new set of indicators was developed that is suitable for the context of German municipalities—regardless of their size. The research project thus provides a methodologically sound and practical tool for evidence-based mobility planning and for evaluating the effectiveness of related measures.
The project included the following work packages:
- Research into existing "best practices" for defining urban sustainable mobility goals and into proven indicators (or sets of indicators)
- Conducting a Germany-wide survey on municipal sustainability goals in the field of mobility and on related experiences with indicators
- Organization of a workshop with planning stakeholders to validate the system of objectives and indicators
- Development of a system of targets and indicators tailored to the German context; at its core are 24 detailed indicator profiles
- Development of a guide for local governments on measuring sustainable mobility using indicators
The research project “Indicators of Sustainable Urban Mobility” explains in an informational video why the use of indicators is highly relevant in municipal practice (text in German):
