POLIS’ new Urban Nodes Taskforce offers a platform for members to engage in peer-to-peer exchanges, fostering collaboration on achieving TEN-T targets and goals for Urban Nodes by 2027. The second meeting of the Taskforce convened with the primary objective of exploring multi-level governance in urban nodes, focusing on institutional cooperation within functional urban areas and in line with a joint city-region-national level nexus. The meeting featured three key presentations sharing best practices and frameworks, followed by a discussion to exchange experiences and insights.

Case studies: Budapest, Slovenia, the Netherlands 

András Vagány from BKK presented the second-generation Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) in Budapest. He emphasised the integration of national and regional partners and improved institutional cooperation mechanisms, highlighting the main challenges in coordination across sectors and government levels. The revision of the Budapest Mobility Plan 2023 put more emphasis on environmental aspects, which is one of the main evaluation criteria for the assessment of mobility development projects included in the plan. The new SUMP monitoring system is based on the SUMI methodology and is creating ownership of the city vision with the new SUMP method.

Slovenia’s National SUMP Support Programme Governance Framework was presented by Aljaž Plevnik and Mojca Balant from UIRS, with support from Polona Demšar Mitrović, Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy (Slovenia). The presentation provided a comprehensive overview of Slovenia’s governance structure for sustainable urban (and regional) mobility planning with key SI NSSP elements. The Comprehensive Transport Planning Act and SUM Planning Law were presented, and an overview of the cooperation between national ministries and local authorities was provided. Finally, the next steps were shown, with SUMP on three levels presented.

Marco van Burgsteden from CROW presented the next steps for efficient multilevel governance for SUMPs in the Netherlands, with an overview of the national strategic spatial planning and how it ties into urban node development. Crow addressed the integration of transport systems and policy alignment with other local plans.

Conclusions and key takeaways

• Multi-level governance remains a complex yet essential process for the successful planning and development of urban nodes.
• Case studies from Budapest and Slovenia illustrate the importance of formalised cooperation frameworks and institutional support.
• National planning tools, plans, strategies and initiatives, such as those presented by CROW, play a vital role in enabling coherent urban node strategies.
• The Taskforce recognised the need for a continuous exchange of experiences and recommended ongoing dialogue between stakeholders.

The meeting concluded with a call for enhanced collaboration between cities, regions, and national bodies and to consider these lessons learned in future urban node planning initiatives.

The Taskforce will continue gathering insights from members, refining the workplan, and working toward practical solutions that ensure that by 2027, each urban node has a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) in place, serving as a medium-term, integrated plan encompassing all aspects of mobility, including monitoring, collection and submission of urban mobility data in line with TEN-T obligations.  

If you have any questions or wish to join the Urban Nodes Taskforce, do not hesitate to contact Melina Zarouka and Marko Stančec, Co-coordinators of the Taskforce.