Set up working structures

2026-07-06T08:35:42Z

Vic Gabriel:

{{SumpStep/top|step=1|phase=1|title=Set up working structures}}<div class="sump-intro">
Before data collection begins, a city needs the right people in the room and a clear agreement on how decisions are made. A Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan is a long-term, cross-sectoral effort. It spans transport, urban planning, environment, finance and social affairs, draws in operators and civil society, and often bridges several tiers of government. Without a deliberate structure to hold all of that together, actors work in parallel, decisions stall, and political backing fades. The task of Step 1 is to build that structure before anything else.
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== The four bodies you need ==

There is no universal template, but most cities combine a small set of complementary bodies. Each plays a distinct role and all four bodies matter.

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<div class="sump-body-card__label">Steering group</div>
<div class="sump-body-card__desc">Senior officials and elected representatives. Sets objectives, resolves conflicts between departments. Meets rarely, but its visible backing is what gives the whole process credibility.</div>
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<div class="sump-body-card__label">Project team</div>
<div class="sump-body-card__desc">The day-to-day engine, led by a dedicated project manager. Prepares steering group material, coordinates participation and manages external studies.</div>
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<div class="sump-body-card__label">Thematic groups</div>
<div class="sump-body-card__desc">Optional but valuable for complex topics: public transport, cycling, digitalisation. They dig into specifics and feed conclusions back up to the project team.</div>
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<div class="sump-body-card sump-body-card--network">
<div class="sump-body-card__label">External networks</div>
<div class="sump-body-card__desc">National competence centres, transnational projects, knowledge platforms. They supply guidance, training and examples from cities that have already done it.</div>
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<div class="dreams-callout__label">Keep it lean but inclusive</div>
Too many bodies slow decisions down. Too few leave out important voices. Build on committees that already exist where you can. And pay deliberate attention to who is normally ''not'' in the room, particularly the user groups most affected by poor access.
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== What changes in the urban outskirts ==

In a dense city core, "the authority" is typically one municipality with the powers it needs. In the outskirts, that assumption might break down.

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<div class="sump-outskirts-box__head">The outskirts governance challenge</div>
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Responsibility for land use, roads, public transport and social services is typically split between a core city, several suburban municipalities and a regional transport body. None of them can deliver a 15-minute neighbourhood on their own.

The real task of Step 1 in the periphery is building a '''cross-boundary coalition''' rather than an internal project team.

It's important to map out which actors actually hold the levers in low- and mid-density areas. Who owns the land, who franchises the buses, who can fund a mobility hub?

Under '''participating organizations''' across the six [[Living Labs]] of DREAMS some examples capture these constellations as they emerged in this project so you can see who needed to be at the table in places comparable to yours.
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== A possible sequence for orientation ==

The exact path depends on local context, but the sequence below holds across most situations. Work through it in order.

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<div class="sump-seq-item"><div class="sump-seq-label">Clarify the mandate and scope.</div><div class="sump-seq-desc">What geographic area does the plan cover? What is its time horizon? Who authorised it? A written mandate, however brief, anchors everything that follows.</div></div>
<div class="sump-seq-item"><div class="sump-seq-label">Map your stakeholders.</div><div class="sump-seq-desc">Who is affected? Who can contribute? Who has formal authority over the levers you need to pull? In the outskirts, this map routinely crosses municipal and sectoral boundaries.</div></div>
<div class="sump-seq-item"><div class="sump-seq-label">Design the governance model.</div><div class="sump-seq-desc">Use the stakeholder map to decide which bodies to create or repurpose, and who sits in each. Aim for the smallest structure that can make real decisions.</div></div>
<div class="sump-seq-item"><div class="sump-seq-label">Define roles, membership and decision rules.</div><div class="sump-seq-desc">Ambiguity here is where plans stall. Each body needs a clear remit, a defined membership and agreed procedures for how it decides things.</div></div>
<div class="sump-seq-item"><div class="sump-seq-label">Secure staff time and budget.</div><div class="sump-seq-desc">Participation that has no dedicated time or resources stays nominal. Treat staffing as a precondition, not a nice-to-have.</div></div>
<div class="sump-seq-item"><div class="sump-seq-label">Communicate and review.</div><div class="sump-seq-desc">Share the structure inside the administration and, where appropriate, with the public. Build in a review point as the plan moves through later phases.</div></div>
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==A good starting point beats a perfect organigram ==
Document what already exists and build on it. Transparent decision-making will do more for the plan's legitimacy than months spent designing the ideal structure from scratch.

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<div class="dreams-handoff__label">Go deeper</div>
For a step-by-step orientation written for small and medium-sized cities, see [https://bsr-sump.eu/training/m1-sump-basics/ Module 1: SUMP basic principles] (Baltic Sea Region Competence Centre on SUMP). For peer experience on governance and capacity in smaller cities, check out other 15mc-projects and join the discussion on the [https://www.expertises-territoires.fr/jcms/pl1_392505/fr/15-min-cities-bringing-more-proximity-in-cities?portlet=yah_5253 15-min cities community].
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<div class="sump-sources">Sources: EU SUMP Guidelines 2.0 (Rupprecht Consult, 2019); DREAMS Work Package 4 (governance and business models); [https://nachhaltig-mobil-planen.de/_SUMP/DE/Planung/SUMP-Prozess/1-Vorbereitung-Analyse/1-Arbeitsstrukturen/arbeitsstrukturen.html ''Arbeitsstrukturen einrichten''], German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (in German).</div>{{SumpStep/bottom|step=1}}

Dreams Knowledge Platform - User contributions [en]

Set up working structures