Gdańsk is developing its Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan. The idea of the project is to ensure equal, fair access for every resident to all areas of the city, regardless of where they live, physical fitness, age or means of transport that the person is using.
In Poland, the subject of "SUMPs" is just at the beginning. Not many cities or towns have it ready (Warsaw and Gdynia do have it). The situation is different in France or Great Britain where every municipality has the responsibility to develop SUMP. In Germany, more and more cities are reaching for this tool for planning the city's development directions, such as Berlin and Bremen.
An important part of the process are wide social consultations. That is why meetings were held in Gdańsk (workshops for residents), during which they discussed about public transport, parking policy, pedestrian and bicycle traffic as well as about mobility management. All meetings enjoyed great interest of the residents. Apart from the residents, meeting was also attended by Deputy Mayor Piotr Grzelak, representatives of municipal units, district councils (separate workshops were organized for this group as well), public administration and non-governmental organizations.

Why do we need SUMP in Gdańsk?
It will be a coherent plan covering the analysis and verification of existing activities in the areas of parking policy, pedestrian and bicycle traffic, public transport and mobility management that are most important for urban mobility.
The annex to this document, and its most important part, will be the action plan with activities to be taken in the coming years, with the designation of municipal units responsible for the implementation of specific tasks.
Depending on the methodology adopted, the action plan is set for a period of three to five years. While the assumptions in SUMP can be accepted for a longer period of time, for example until 2025, plans have to be determined for several years. After this time, you need to check what part of it was successfully implemented and what effect the changes bring. As for the tasks to be carried out, it is worth dividing them into real ones, for introducing them in a short time and less real, which will have to wait for various reasons or are not possible to introduce due to the existing legal conditions.

This is how the inhabitants of Gdańsk travel - the results of Gdańsk 2016 traffic research.
As part of the analysis, it was found that Modal Split presents as follows:
individual transport – 41,2%
public transport – 32,1%
pedestrians – 20,8%
cyclists – 5,9%

Gdańsk should be the city for people, not for vehicles
The SUMP study can have a huge impact on the development of Gdansk, as well as on the well-being of its residents. The sustainable mobility plan is an instrument for realizing the idea of the city for people. The point is that we should feel good in our city, with conditions for healthy and good functioning. Within the SUMP, various types of activities both on the micro and marco scale are at stake. It is very important how to travel around my district, if there are good quality public spaces, do I feel save and do not have to worry about my child when he goes out on a bicycle? The same is reflected in the scale of the entire city, do I have the ability to safely, comfortably and quickly traveling? Changes that bring a better quality of life will sometimes require sacrifices, especially on the part of drivers, but examples from the cities of Europe that have "followed the path of SUMP" indicate that it is worth bearing. Also in Gdansk, more and more people are aware that changes are necessary, and that sustainable mobility is the only way.

Gdańsk residents still love driving their cars. Are they ready to give it up for a better quality of life in the city?

Scenarios of the city's future
It is worth adding that the workshops are not the only form of public consultations as a part of the development of the SUMP in Gdansk. The project team is also developing a large internet survey for the residents of Gdańsk, which will be carried out at the beginning of 2018.
The respondents will receive at least three scenarios of the city's development. In the first one they will see what Gdańsk will look like in 2030 if investments will be conducted only towards the development of infrastructure for individual (car) transport, in the second - a simulation of the city's development will be presented, where the center of gravity will be located on pedestrian / cycling solutions and collective transport; in the third it will be a mixed variant.
Thanks to this scenario method, everyone will be aware of the consequences of adopting a given policy and - having this knowledge - think about what is more important to them.

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