Sustainable Urban Development & Concept of Mobility Management in Belgrade

Abstract

Urban mobility and accessibility represent major challenging issues in the functioning of the city of Belgrade, both for the city government as well as for the residents. (In) efficiency of transport systems and street network; decreased mobility and traffic congestion followed with air pollution; limited accessibility and/or dependency on car to certain urban areas especially to sprawling informal settlements at the fringe of Belgrade; spent time, effort, price and lack of comfort that many people experience on a daily bases while commuting from home to school, work, health centers, shopping malls, stores and vice verse; questionable land use still planned with traditional formal sector planning; lack of parking or park-and-ride options, as well as lack of information on mobility options, call together toward complex conception of new adaptive planning, governance and management approaches to sustainable urban development and mobility in an integrated way.

Good transportation system and high quality urban environment in the 21st century means choice: quality public transport; safe bicycle traffic; encouraged walking options and pedestrian routes; and good public spaces and place to live in the city where driving a car is a choice and not a necessity. This paper will present contemporary theoretical and practical European approaches in the field of sustainable urban development and mobility management and their applicability to Serbian context trough several case studies from Belgrade as well as achieved results so far, with recommendations for further research, especially for the role of urban planners, urban managers and architects.