STEP UP
Strengthening The Effectiveness of Policies for eUropean Pedestrians
Project summary
The Goal
Strengthening The Effectiveness of Policies for eUropean Pedestrians (STEP UP) is an innovative European project, supported by eight city and regional partners, aiming to ensure the many walking policies that are emerging at all levels are as effective as possible at delivering the shared vision for a safer, healthier, cleaner and more sustainable Europe.
The baseline
More than 90% of countries in Europe now have a walking policy at the national level acknowledging that walking has to be as easy, safe and comfortable as possible. Three quarters of these have been developed since COVID when it became evident that walking needed more commitment, policy attention and resources. Cities and regions have been publishing walking policies at pace too, but often without support.
The way forward
Together, the STEP UP Project agrees on the processes to follow, the actions to take, and the measures for success, for walking to support sustainable mobility in a greener Europe. A common systemised approach to facilitate a structured and comparable analysis, planning, and implementation of walking policies ensures this quick, affordable and reliable investment opportunity helps Europe reach several of the SDG commitments and climate targets.
A general policy improvement framework elaborates to steer the policy improvement throughout the project. Project Partners are supported to assess their existing policies against the 8 Steps that have proven to help effectiveness. Specific competences are highlighted as well as gaps where new learnings can be made. Good practice examples identified during the eight study visits are translated into the regional context and help to successfully improve the partners existing policy instruments at the regional level. The findings of the interregional learning process improves the effectiveness of walking policies within the project partners' regions and hopefully inspire many other cities and regions too across Europe.
Our first project video
The partnership
- Bussines Agency Burgenland (Austria)
- City of Gdanks (Poland)
- City of Braga (Portugal)
- Fingal Country Council (Ireland)
- City of Rotterdam (Netherlands)
- Vilnius Municipal Enterprise (Lithuania)
- Region Päijät-Häme (Finnland)
- Heraklion Municipality (Greece)
- Walk21 (Netherlands)
Check out our first project video!
The video presents the project's goals and activities.
What will this project change
The project will strengthen the effectiveness of policy instruments for walking in cities and regions across Europe. Hence the conditions for walking like standards, funding etc. will be improved and the experience for pedestrians will be more enjoyable.