Integration of mobility management into territorial planning process in Lithuania

Abstract

Mobility management covers the soft management measures that have emerged in Europe in the recent decades and that are aimed at changing behaviour of traffic participants, promoting use of nonmotorised vehicles and the public transport as an alternative for a car. At present, the world keeps speaking about the integration of mobility management measures into the process of territorial planning, meanwhile in Lithuania the concept of mobility management is accepted sceptically. The process of transport planning and introduction as well as the related land use planning is usually chaotic. For the meantime, an information base of population mobility does not exit in Lithuania. There exist no systemised data on transport modes preferred by population for daily travel, average length and duration of travels, to say nothing of the analysis of social factors influencing the changing mobility. The article presents analysis of researches published by the authors and other specialists who worked on mobility that reveals that changing population mobility by its nature does not approximate to the model of sustainable transport system to be implemented not only in major but also in smaller towns of Lithuania. One of the reasons for that could be failure to integrate mobility management measures into the process and documents of territorial and strategic planning. The article presents experience of other European countries in combining mobility management and spatial planning on all levels of planning. It also offers proposals for assessment and use of mobility management in the drafting of general and special territorial plans.