Already well ahead of the current political and public debate on high levels of nitrogen oxide emissions in German cities, the City of Kassel addressed the topic of urban air pollution caused by traffic. In 2015 Kassel adopted its new transport development plan (VEP: Verkehrsentwicklungsplan Kassel 2030), which fulfills most of the criteria of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP).

At this stage of the CIVITAS PROSPERITY project, the task is to accompany and evaluate the gradual implementation of the SUMP. Also making use of the expertise of external partners, the City of Kassel intends to improve and simplify the planning instrument’s implementation. As a first step, Kassel, supported by the German Institute for Urban Affairs (Difu), held a workshop on the further implementation of a monitoring and evaluation system in March 2018.

19 experts and representatives of the municipal administration came together. Professor Udo Becker from the Institute for Transport Planning and Road Traffic at the Technical University of Dresden presented different models, options for evaluation and recommended to establish process indicators. In working groups the participants specifically discussed the question of how to measure mobility of people. Both working groups came up with proposals for a selection of such indicators. However, they concluded that there is no ideal set of indicators, its development rather is a process for which it is important to keep the local framework conditions in mind.

The workshop made clear that with the ‘Verkehrswende’ (transformation of mobility) on the agenda, the City of Kassel passed its transport development plan at a good point in time. The participants acknowledged and underlined that Kassel’s VEP effectively is a SUMP and that Kassel has set up a SUMP process.