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Project acronym: ENDURANCE

Project title: EU-wide Establishment of Enduring National and European Support Networks for Sustainable Urban Mobility

NATIONAL INVENTORY

Country: SLOVAKIA

Date of preparation: / June 2013
Start date of project: / 1st of May 2013 / Duration: / 36 months
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TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction

National inventories as a basis for roadmaps

Standardised structure of the national inventory

A) Awareness of SUMPs in your country

B) Planning tools used in your country

C) State of the art of SUMPs implementation in your country

D) Most active partners in your country

E) Existing initiatives in your country

F) Potential financial resources for SUMPs preparation and the SUMP network funding

Introduction

This document comprises the first step within the WP2 tasks of the ENDURANCE project focused on building-up of enduring national networks on SUMPs. A ‘National SUMP Network’ is a national network which actively supports its members in preparing and implementing Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs). The national SUMPS networks will then:

·foster a national policy and national support for SUMP

·organise and develop information, training and training materials in the local language

·facilitate national knowledge exchange between cities

·be the national contact point and thus to channel and to institutionalise the knowledge exchange on the international level

·be able to provide support to cities and agglomerations in terms of sustainable mobility.

The networks aim at encouraging and supporting cities to engage in sustainable urban mobility planning and implementation. This requires country-specific approaches as the starting point and situation differs among countries and even among cities within a country.

Each country partner in ENDURANCE is called a National Focal Point (NFP): it is the focal point for the national networks and the contact point for international exchange and communication for its country. Each NFP will prepare a national inventory of already existing network structures as well as of relevant stakeholders and initiatives in terms of sustainable mobility planning.

National inventories as a basis for roadmaps

The national inventories will serve as a basis for producing roadmaps of national SUMP network formation.

The roadmaps will be updated in the course of the ENDURANCE project and they will also give the path on which the networks will develop and continue after the project ends. The roadmaps will serve as a guideline for the central task of the ENDURANCE WP2: the actual national network development.

Thus the national inventories are the first step to feed the inputs which are necessary for network foundation / adaption and should cover above all the following:

-what has already been done,

-what has worked well (why)

-and what hasn't (and why)

-the actual status of these networks,

-the demand for SUMP services,

-already available local resources and further important contacts that could support the networking and SUMP implementation on national, regional and local level.

The inventory of the national level network status can build on the already existing national networks on Mobility Management that have been built up within the project EPOMM-PLUS. These existing national networks (in 21 countries) need to be thematically expanded to cover SUMP.

In four countries that were neither in EPOMM-PLUS nor in EPOMM (Denmark, Slovakia, Latvia and Ireland) there is no such national network structure, neither for MM nor for SUMP. Here the network needs to be built up from scratch.

The inventories will cover the actual status of these networks, and the potential for the SUMP networks to be established.

WP2 is closely connected with WP3. WP3 will make an inventory of all cities and actors in your country which were involved in EU projects related to SUMP. These partners can make an important contribution to the roadmaps and the SUMP networks we are going to build and endure.

Standardised structure of the national inventory

To fill in the template, please use, among others, the following sources:

SUMP State of the art:
EPOMM MM-monitors:
ELTISplus, above all awareness raising and training events (the Workshop Follow-Up Report is available for: Belgium, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia)

We would like to kindly ask you to go through the following template and fill in the national inventory accordingly, to summarise all the needed inputs to be able to build on them roadmaps and further activities. Feel free to adjust the template to specifics in your country, when needed. Please send your national inventory by email to: and by June 24, 2013. Thank you.

A) Awareness of SUMPs in your country

A.1. SUMP acceptance and awareness by cities in your country

Mobility management concept is still quite new in Slovakia. This concept is used especially by university experts and devoted NGOs. Nor national strategies or legislative use, neither recognize this term yet. Due to the EMW campaigns and involvement of Slovak partners in European projects some municipalities, mainly in bigger cities (Bratislava, Žilina, Košice, Prešov, BanskáBytrica) started to use mobility management measures to improve their transport urban systems, however appropriate tools and methodologies are usually missing. Introduction of SUMP concept started with the help of some European projects. The main aim of the projects was to embed Mobility Management and SUMP into regional and municipal transport policies, and bring mobility measures into practice. In these projects cities usually learnt from the experience of more advanced project partners to improve public transport, cycling, parking, walking and the environment in their cities. As regard SUMP acceptance and awareness by cities it can be summarised that:

Bigger Slovak cities were informed about SUMP concept.
Cities declared their general interest in SUMPs.
Cities started to implement some measures related to mobility management and mobility planning.
Cities usually started to implement measures being pushed by NOGs and mobility experts.
There is not systematic approach in this field on national level.
There is not appropriate collaboration established among cities and relevant stakeholders.

A.2. Gaps in awareness and how to overcome them

Transport is one of the strategic policy areas in which cities can decisively influence the quality of the urban environment and life of their citizens. However, at present the understanding of the possible and actual effects of SUMP on the real mobility situation in cities is still rather limited in Slovakia. We found this fact together with the lack of money to be the most important barriers, which obstructs more considerable progress in this matter. The another gap is a fragmentation of sources and carriers of progress. The carriers of progress, especially representatives of NOGs, cycling initiatives, academia, mobility and transport experts work in very individual way. Many times they do not know about the work of each other.

The information about SUMP concept was spread only in bigger Slovak cities. Associations or network of cities have not been involved yet. There is not systematic way of introduction of SUMP and mobility management from the side of national decision makers. Even they have still very limited knowledge about SUMP. To overcome the above mentioned barriers and gaps UNIZA suggests solutions as follows:

To establish regular and systematic cooperation among NGOs, academia and mobility experts, which have been working in the field of mobility management in the last decade (establishment of Mobility action group).
To start to work with more cities, perhaps with the help of Associations of cities and municipalities of Slovak Republic.
To establish the network of cities and to start to work with them in more systematic way.
To create reference database of information regarding SUMP and mobility management with case studies (also from Slovak cities).
To involve respective bodies (Ministries, etc.) in introducing SUMP concept in Slovakia.
To raise awareness of Slovak citizens of SUMPs through media.

A.3. Specific up-to-date needs of cities related to SUMP topic

None special needs have been identified yet in Slovakia. UNIZA plan to examine them in frame of WP3 activities.

B) Planning tools used in your country

B.1. Legislation (laws and regulations) related to sustainable mobility in your country

Policy making

The Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development is responsible for strategic development and policy making in the field of transport in Slovakia. The ministry coordinates the strategies, policies, programmes and tasks of national importance. In addition, there are national bodies responsible for each mode of transport (e.g. SlovakRail, and National highway company). Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Health (through Institute of Public Health) are cooperating in cross-sector agendas.

Policy delivery

There is not board or mobility council to deliver the mobility policies in Slovakia. The state owned or private certified national companies are responsible for delivery of national policies in majority of cases. The continuous public discussion is led on further decentralisation, where the mobility management agenda would be transferred to self-governing regions and municipalities.

Legislation

B. 1.1 National level:

National transport policies

Transport policy of Slovak Republic by 2015 - DOPRAVNÁ POLITIKA SLOVENSKEJ REPUBLIKY DO ROKU 2015 – (approved on June, 8, 2005)

The overall goal of the policy is to ensure sustainable mobility in Slovakia. However there are not any measures directly supporting introduction and/or implementation of SUMPs mentioned in this document. There are some aspects of sustainable mobility and planning approach included in Specific objective 4: Reduce negative impact of transport on environment in priorities as follows:

Priority 4.1 Development of public transport – supporting sustainable development of population mobility.
Priority 4.2 Optimisation of transportation demands via territorial (land use) planning
Priority 4.3 Environmentally friendly transport
Priority 4.4 Development of non-motorised means of transport

Program resolution of the government of Slovak Republic for the period 2010 -2014 PROGRAMOVÉ VYHLÁSENIE VLÁDY SLOVENSKEJ REPUBLIKY NA OBDOBIE ROKOV 2010 – 2014