Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan for Aberdeen,...

Aberdeen City Council SUMP Presentation to Prague Ecoforum 2013

Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan for

Aberdeen, Scotland

Louise Napier Senior Planner

Aberdeen City Council


A bit about me…..

• Louise Napier – Senior Planner (Transport Strategy & Programmes) Aberdeen City Council

• Work in a team that develop transport policy including the Local Transport Strategy

• Involved in a huge range of sustainable transport projects such as Aberdeen’s Car Club, electric charging infrastructure, walk/cycle to school initiatives and air quality projects… and the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan


A bit about Aberdeen

• Scotland’s third largest city with

around 213,000 inhabitants

• Regional centre for the North East

of Scotland serving 450,000 people

(Aberdeen City plus Aberdeenshire)

• Working harbour in the city centre

• Buoyant Oil Industry and

surrounding faming industries

95% of Aberdeen City residents and

30% of Aberdeenshire residents

work in Aberdeen city.


The transport situation

• High traffic movements on major routes

(35,000 vehicles per day on main route

through city centre with 10% HGVs)

• 43% of Aberdeenshire households have

access to 2 or more cars!

84% of vehicles coming in on main southern

road (A90) are single occupancy

Only 10% of people pay for parking. We have

18,000 spaces in the city centre!

• Yet 31% of households do not have access to

a car in Aberdeen (which is lower than any

other Scottish City)


The result?

• Congestion

• Lots of HGV movements

• City centre feels difficult to navigate

• People and retailers gravitate towards malls

• Poor air quality - 4 out of 10 worst PM10 areas in Scotland


The opportunity to act now

• Adopted Local Transport Strategy

• AWPR – Bypass will free-up roadspace which could benefit sustainable transport

• CCDF – Land Use Plan for City Centre with interlinking character areas – approved 2010

• New LDP to take city centre regeneration focus

• The Smarter City – Political will to regenerate the city centre and take a “European Lead” in developing a 21st Century transport system.

• EU SUMP model chosen as answer


What is a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan?

• A Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) is essentially a transport masterplan looking at the way people move around by different modes of transport. These include walking, cycling, bus, train, taxi, motorcycle, car, van and Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV).

• To develop the most effective SUMP, it is essential that the public and stakeholders are involved in its development to ensure that the end result is something which brings them the greatest benefit.


Aims of the SUMP

• Ensure the transport system is accessible to all;

• Improve the safety and security of its users;

• Reduce air and noise pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption;

• Improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the transportation of people and goods; and

• Enhance the attractiveness and quality of the urban environment.


Transport Challenges

• Perceptions of transport

• Everyone uses transport so is everyone an expert? Or an expert at their journey?

• Who is most important/ should we prioritise?

• Convenience or necessity?

• Is it about transport at all?

• Pre-conceived ideas about how to solve problems – mostly involving building roads

• Transport Challenge:


SUMP Process – Getting started

• Initiation of a ‘Project Team’ who

oversee the production of the

SUMP:

• Aberdeen City Council officers

(Transportation Strategy &

Programmes, Masterplanning,

Design & Conservation and Traffic

Management)

• Nestrans, and Robert Gordon

University (RGU)


Vision and Objectives

Vision:

“To create a vibrant,

attractive, connected

and economically

sustainable city centre

that is accessible to all

and well equipped to

adapt to changing

circumstances over

time”


Objectives

Easy to move around

Essential trips given priority

Increase walking and cycling opportunities

Improve public transport

Improve access to bus, rail stations and ferry

Focus on movement

Improve air quality

Reduce noise levels

Minimise road accident casualties

Increase footfall


Analysis of Existing City Centre Transport

Network

• Understanding of the current situation

• Gather information about how people currently use the city centre

• Gather opinions from as many users as possible

• Find out what works, what needs to be improved and what can be done to improve things

• Are there good examples from elsewhere in the world?



Network

On the Street

• Footfall Surveys: undertaken in the city centre on a Wednesday a Friday between 6am and 10pm

• Cameras were set up to capture pedestrian movements across the city centre at 28 sites in both directions

• On Street Interviews: took place at 5 locations on Wednesday and Saturday. 301 responses



Network

Online Questionnaire

Ran for 1 month at end of 2012. Almost 500 questionnaires were completed

Promoted using traditional methods – Posters, press release, Council website, radio interview

Enhanced with social media. Twitter and Facebook

Larger audience hit


What they were asked

Workshops

• 4 stakeholder workshops were held at the end of October

• 3 of these were for organisations with an interest in the city centre and the last for Council Officers whose work could be affected by the SUMP

• Asked to write problems on “post it” notes, stick them up under transport mode headings and then group them under similar themes of their choosing

• Exercise repeated for good points and solutions


Do The Right Mix Award

• European Commission’s Sustainable Urban Mobility

campaign, launched in July 2012, is a three-year initiative

aiming to support sustainable urban mobility campaigners

in the European Union’s 27 Member States

• Aberdeen SUMP won first-ever SUMP award for

‘Stakeholder and Citizen Participation’ on 6th March 2013

http://dotherightmix.eu/


Why were we innovative

• Range of consultation methods

• Use of social media – added to the usual suspects

• Public given blank sheet and involved at the start – not consulted on a plan

• Workshops allowed all to participate without fear – no need to voice opinions

• Challenging our elected members. Just because we are the ‘oil capital of Europe’ doesn’t mean everyone uses the car!


So what did the public actually say?

• Bus was

most

popular

method of

transport,

followed by

walking. Car

came third!



• Walking was

perceived as the

easiest mode to get

around by



• Cycling was

perceived as the

hardest mode of

transport to get

around by


So, what did the public actually say?

• Car sharing increased in evening

• Bus popular but cost, reliability, route choice, journey times and inadequate bus-priority measures could improve

• Cycling perceived as the least user friendly and most dangerous mode

• More train stations were suggested


So, what did the public actually say?

• Desire for better and cheaper parking

• Need to reduce cars and congestion in the city centre

• Better freight routes

• The built environment, the green space and the architectural quality were all seen as positives

• Poor air quality, maintenance issues and empty shops require action

• = it’s not all about the car!


Develop Layered Modal Strategy for

Improvement (Current Stage)

• Look at each transport mode and propose policies, strategies or interventions to improve the existing situation and to fill any gaps in transportation infrastructure that have been identified

• Produce an action and delivery programme

• Draft for September 2013


Stage 5 – Multi-modal layered strategy -

pedestrians


Why did the SUMP work for us?

• A model of European best practice

• Sustainability Agenda

• Consideration of all modes

• Link between transport and landuse

• Importance of the users

• Helped identify a strong support for

change within the city centre – led

by public and stakeholders

• Present this to our elected

members

http://dotherightmix.eu/


How we made the most of it

• Could have done a top-down approach, instead grass routes

• Involvement and participation rather than consultation

• Involved individuals, businesses and organisations regularly allowing genuine findings to be taken to decisions makers

• Promotional mix designed to hit widest demographic

• Focus on what we want the end vision/ aims/ objectives to be rather than jumping to the solutions

• Encouraged people to identify problems and solve them by using good examples from elsewhere in the city and further afield rather than thinking how will my car journey improve

• Could it have gone another way?!


Where can you access more info?

• www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sump

• Facebook – Aberdeen City Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan -

SUMP

• Twitter – @TSAPAberdeen

• [email protected]

http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/sump

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