Page 207 - Proceeding 2015

LECA Iuliana FAMP
A NEW WAY OF STRATEGIC THINKING – BOOSTING SUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITY PLANS-
CCASP
ROMANIAN CASE

1. INTRODUCTION

“Transportation is often referred to as the “lifeblood of cities” because it provides the essential link among
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 11 TH ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC MANAGEMENT INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
activities and, in the long run, to a large extent, it helps shape the city” (Vuchic, 1999). To promote
sustainable and livable urban environments, private, public and non-motorized transport must functionally
complement each other by forming balanced intermodal systems. However, in many cities today,
including Romania, transportation is characterized by the dominance of the car and high auto-dependency

in travel. As long as there is infrastructure available (road and parking), the car offers freedom of travel,
but in the same time it is accompanied with high negative effects on health, environment, tourism. Today,
cities and the transportation systems are subject of enormous challenges:

The world population grows rapidly and this growth is concentrated mainly in cities.

Today more people live in urban areas than in rural areas.

30 th – 31 st October 2015 ”Strategic Management for Local Communities” Bucharest With the increasing expansion of cities as well as the economic development travel distances are
It is estimated that in 2030 about 60% percent of the population will live in urban areas while this
percentage will reach more than 75% in 2050

increasing as well.

The negative effects of transport, such as air pollution, noise and accidents affect the quality of life.

FIGURE 1 - CHALLENGES FOR THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
Source: European Commission, 2011
Taking into account all these challenges, at the global level, the municipalities together with the
researchers started in the last years to find solutions for a sustainable urban mobility. Considering the

specificity of each cities and its development dynamics, it is underlined that solutions shall be tailored
made for individual problems, but in the same time it recognized the fact that many cities are similar in

their functioning and the solutions should be universal.

Thus, the research objectives are to:

? Present the European evolution of documents related to urban mobility

? Analyse the situation in different countries in which concern the SUMPs

? Explain the Romanian context and the situation of elaboration of SUMPs

? Underlined the main barriers and problems encountered

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