Sustainable urban mobility and commuting in Baltic cities

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People living in the suburbs usually commute into the city centre by car. Offering an alternative combination of various transport modes, including bike and car sharing, is a way for cities to achieve a more sustainable, environmental friendly commuting system. The project helps urban and transport planners assess, plan, and integrate alternative mobility options into transport plans and policies of cities and municipalities. Sustainable and green commuting: As more and more people live in the suburbs, there is an increasing number of commuters to city centres. The commuter traffic is mostly dominated by the use of private cars, which causes traffic congestion, air pollution, scarcity of parking spaces and a decrease in the cost-recovery contribution of public transport. The SUMBA project works towards a more sustainable and environmentally friendly commuting system combining various transport modes, such as public transport, car sharing, walking and cycling. Pilot regions: The project helps urban and transport planners assess, plan and integrate alternative mobility options into the transport plans and policies of their cities and municipalities. Tools and guidance documents facilitating the realisation of this objective are first tested in ten pilot regions from seven countries: Hamburg (Germany); Tallinn city/Harju county and Tartu (Estonia); Riga (Latvia); Växjö (Sweden); Siauliai (Lithuania); Helsinki (Finland); Olsztyn, Gdynia and Warsaw suburban region (Poland). Commuting master plans are afterwards developed in those regions. Low carbon cities and regions: The challenges caused by commuter traffic is a common issue for the Baltic Sea region. This is why SUMBA aims at disseminating tools and guidance documents developed in the project in the entire region. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is an important step towards turning the Baltic Sea region into a low-carbon region.

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