Sustainable Mobility as Urban Policy: Case of Poland

Sustainable urban mobility is an issue in different urban contexts. It is also an important element of urban policy, therefore is deserves and needs the analysis from the perspective of political science. Many of the cities have already been successful (e.g. Stockholm, Copenhagen, Dutch and German cities) and can serve as examples of good practices and champions of sustainable mobility. Cities implement policies, which aim at reducing the congestion and air pollution. They also are related to land-use planning and new concepts for public spaces in the city. The paper contains an analysis of policies aiming at changing the cities’ structure of movement into the sustainable one. It will outline the conceptualisation of sustainable mobility, how it is done and what are the main elements that are developed in order the change the structure of dominating modes of mobility inside the cities. It will answer what incentives are used and how, in order to provide the alternative modes of movement (e.g. development of public transport and cycling paths) and how they are combined with deterrents (e.g. banning or limiting the entrance for cars to certain parts of the city). In the second part of the presentation the research results from 15 Polish cities will be commented: in terms of their concepts of implementing the sustainable mobility, how the priorities are set, what tools and means for realizing it are used, who are the key decision-makers and what is the role of stakeholders in the process.