Integrated Transport Strategy – a new and innovative strategic document for the LUR
The Ljubljana Urban Region (LUR) has drawn up its first integrated transport strategy at the level of the entire development region. The strategy was unanimously approved at the 10th ordinary meeting of the LUR Council on 24 October 2018. It is an innovative strategic document that takes as its starting point the actual needs of the region as a whole and responds to concrete challenges in the field of sustainable mobility. The central aim of the measures included in the action plan is to improve quality of life, where the emphasis is on reducing private car use, encouraging the use of public transport and nonmotorised forms of transport, reducing high levels of emissions and noise caused by traffic and reducing congestion.
The municipalities of the Ljubljana Urban Region, realising that the challenges of mobility need to be seen in a long-term perspective and can only be addressed through the joint efforts and cooperation of all municipalities and key stakeholders, identified sustainable mobility as one of the priority development tasks in as long ago as 2007, when they jointly began preparing background documents for the regulation of public transport in the region. Numerous activities in the last decade have been oriented towards finding solutions that provide accessible, rapid, efficient, safe, clean and economically acceptable transport, which is urgently necessary if the region is to continue to develop its potentials, while at the same time it plays an important role in ensuring comfortable living in the region and connecting people.
The provision of integrated mobility with well-functioning public passenger transport and the development of high-quality and safe infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists had already become a common goal, since it offers numerous advantages both to residents and visitors to the region and to businesses, society and the environment. Land is increasingly precious and its use must be as carefully considered as possible. Numerous activities and joint projects such as the introduction of new bus connections to suburban municipalities, a network of P+R hubs, intermunicipal cycle routes and sustainable measures of the City of Ljubljana (the closure of the city centre and part of principal thoroughfare Slovenska Cesta to private cars, free transport by Kavalir electric vehicles, the BicikeLJ bike sharing system, the introduction of yellow lanes for buses, the Urbana citywide travel card, etc.) have for several years been focused on protecting the natural characteristics of the region, increasing competitiveness and ensuring a progressively healthier and better-quality environment.
Preparation of the Integrated Transport Strategy was thus a logical step that once again brought together all 26 municipalities of the LUR in a common commitment to the sustainable development of the region. The document defines concrete projects designed to promote and facilitate sustainable mobility and at the same time represents one of the key background documents for the regional spatial plan and the basis for seeking resources for its implementation.
The entire document, detailing specific measures for the realisation of the priority objectives of the development of sustainable mobility in the LUR is published HERE and is also available and all branches of Ljubljana City Library and the National and University library.
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More information: Matej Gojčič, RRA LUR, matej.gojcic@rralur.si, +386 (0)1 306 19 02
Drafters of the Integrated Transport Strategy of the LUR: Regional Development Agency of the Ljubljana Urban Region, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, LUZ d.d., Ljubljana Institute of Traffic and Transport, and Institute for Spatial Policies.