Luka Mladenovič

Ljubljana was the first post-socialist city awarded with the title European Green Capital. The title awarded by the European Commission is given to a city that is achieving high environmental standards, is setting ambitious goals for further environmental improvement and sustainable development, and can act as a role model to inspire other cities and promote best practices to all other European cities. The article is based on a hypothesis that at the moment when Ljubljana applied for (and was awarded) the European Green Capital title, it had strong strategic spatial planning and successful territorial governance, as well as the interweaving of both. To prove the hypothesis, the timetable and characteristics of the strategic spatial planning and territorial governance in Ljubljana are presented in this article and critically evaluated. Critical evaluation and analyses are also assessed using a qualitative research method, i.e., semi-structured in-depth interviews among experts from four professional fields including spatial planning, urbanism, architecture, and management. The results confirmed the hypothesis: Ljubljana’s sustainability-oriented strategic spatial plan prepared by a variety of stakeholders, experts, and citizens, as well as the effective governance system established by the mayor, a manager by profession, were two factors that coincided at a crucial moment. This was recognized by the European Commission and Ljubljana was awarded a prestigious title. Ljubljana can therefore serve as an excellent sustainable example for other post-socialist cities in terms of strategic spatial planning and governance.

The paper presents the results of the application of a practical approach for collecting data, which provides a simple, cost efficient, and easily reproducible method that was applied to obtain the necessary data for the status analysis of the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) for Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro. Important data for the estimation of the existing condition of the traffic system were collected through desk research from the appropriate institutions and organizations. Several surveys and focus group interviews were conducted, in which about 5000 residents of Podgorica participated. In addition to answering questions, residents made numerous suggestions, confirming the correctness of a participatory approach in the new traffic planning paradigm that provides the SUMP with crucial advantages. A manual cordon count of traffic on five bridges for the traffic of the motor vehicles, as well as on two pedestrian-only bridges, was performed by students from the study program Road Traffic, and there are plans to repeat this in the coming years in order to enable more reliable monitoring and evaluation of the obtained data. Contemporary quality management tools such as BYPAD and ParkPAD were also used to assess the status of cycling and parking policy, respectively. It is especially important to emphasize that Podgorica is the first city in the West Balkans, and the fourth city in Europe, in which the ParkPAD tool was applied. A wide range of negative phenomena and trends was identified, like a rapid increase in the number of registered vehicles, an increase in the motorization rate and the number of traffic accidents, increased non-compliance with traffic rules, excessive use of passenger cars and auto-taxi vehicles, insufficient use of unattractive public transport, walking and cycling, etc. Based on the data collected, key challenges in status analysis in Podgorica were identified, which the SUMP should try to overcome.

The 15-minute city is a concept that first emerged in response to dispersed urban development, where increasingly long car trips between daily activities such as living, working, recreation and shopping are considered acceptable. The concept builds on the idea that people who spend less time on daily journeys will live better and use less energy. Most elements of the concept have been present in the theory of urban planning for almost a century now and stem from the need for efficient organization of residents considering limited time and opportunities for daily travel. The concept of 15-minute city returned in focus during the COVID-19 crisis and lockdowns, when countries and cities introduced measures to restrict movement of residents close to their homes. In this specific situation some cities recognized the need and opportunity of the situation to rethink the design of urban areas with a clear goal of ensuring better local accessibility. The paper presents an analysis of key initiatives that emerged in last two years as a part of the concept. It compares the approaches, their key elements and implementation. Based on this, the paper proposes how elements of the concept could be transferred and integrated into current planning practice in Slovenia.

Traffic safety is an important part of traffic planning. It is a complex field that is traditionally dealt with by traffic safety experts. In recent years there has been several calls for change of paradigm, which would put more focus on a wider look at the safety challenges and securing generally better conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. As such it should be considered in the process of SUMP preparation to specify a baseline situation and to identify potential problematic areas that needs to be addressed in future. The paper presents assessment of traffic safety in Slovenian Koroška region as a part of a regional SUMP development process. Within the analysis we were using actual, non-aggregated data of traffic accidents including location. Within the paper we are presenting a proposal for a statistical data processing approach that is relevant from the point of view of a SUMP status analysis and target setting. The objective was to evaluate the variables related to traffic safety that can be influenced by a SUMP. The approach is showing an interesting insight into conditions of traffic safety on a regional scale, but also potential for further research if collected data would be merged with additional data, such as actual passenger data for different transport modes.

The paper presents results of an analysis of measures implemented in various European cities that have been effective in reducing the share of trips by car and increasing the shares of active mobility and public transportation. Ten cities with a significant modal shift from cars to public transportation and/or active mobility in a period of several years were analysed. For each city, an interview was conducted with a local expert. The questions focused on the reasons for successful changes in travel habits and the existence and relevance of the SUMP in bringing about these changes. The results show that all cities analysed have some form of SUMP, and many have additional, more specific documents. Also, most cities have been developing these documents and implementing the measures in them for many years. The modal shift has not been the result of a single measure but was always due to the combination of several push and pull measures. Cities implemented restrictive measures for cars as well as improved conditions for alternative modes of mobility and often focused on road space transformation.