Mobility issues in rapidly developing cities are the ones of the highest importance. This development, though desired, carries a number of negative impacts, including congestion, increased emissions and noise level, which can lead to a decline in quality of life. These problems didn’t pass Gdynia, a port city with its dynamically growing enterprises (also in the logistics and shipping sectors), and the city has faced the following challenges:
- increased motorisation and mobility among residents,
- some streets do not serve their intended purpose, because of gaps in the hierarchy of transportation (different travel types with large differences in speed overlap on some streets),
- high demand for heavy vehicle transport connected with the activities of the Port of Gdynia,
- suburbanisation,
- congestion, parking problems, increase in emissions and traffic incidents.
Gdynia decided to resolve these issues in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. To tackle the problems Gdynia joined the BUSTRIP project in 2005-2008, which resulted in the development of Sustainable Urban Transport Plan (SUTP) for 2008-2015. The document aimed at developing a sustainable urban transport system by implementing goals, such as:
- increase in road safety for pedestrians, cyclists, car drivers / passengers and security in public transport vehicles,
- Reduction of noise and air pollution, carbon emissions and energy consumption,
- improvement in the efficiency of the transport of passengers and goods,
- improving the attractiveness and quality of the urban area,
- improving the quality of life of residents,
- improving the accessibility of transport services for residents.
This document acts as a base for the creation of a next-generation mobility plan– the Gdynia Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) that is being developed within the framework of the CIVITAS DYN@MO project. The new plan will be more comprehensive and result oriented and, most importantly, will be adopted as a legally binding document.
The plan will be prepared and implemented following the SUMP cycle presented in the Guidelines - Developing and implementing a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan and the process will include the following steps
- Consolidation of existing urban and transport plans,
- The development of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan in Gdynia (SUMP),
- Active involvement of citizens and stakeholders in the planning process,
- Acceptance of the plan by Resolution of the City Council,
The use of modelling tools and information technology will allow for a new generation plan to be created. Mobility 2.0 Internet platform, that Gdynia established in the beginning of 2014, enables residents and visitors to actively participate in the planning process.
Developed SUMP measures will be supplemented with more detailed projects and studies prepared by Gdansk University of Technology with the use of transport model. The studies will be consulted with the local community through social media and web 2.0 platform. These will help to refine the indicators in the SUMP, verify tasks and actions identified in the SUMP and increase their detailing. The research will include: a simulation of the introduction of the pedestrian zone on one of the streets in the city centre, a study on the construction of the PRT (personal rapid transit) and the analysis of selected variants of modification of the traffic and public transport services in Gdynia. The results of these studies will be presented and widely discussed with the residents of the city through the Mobility 2.0 platform, and directly during organised meetings with stakeholder groups.
