How to improve urban mobility through general urban plan? The case study of the city of Šabac, Serbia

Abstract

Post-socialist transition has profoundly changed the cities in former socialist societies in Central and Eastern Europe. Thus, some common “transitional” characteristics have reflected into urban space. One of them is certainly the commercialization of urban space, especially in city centres, but also around new retail zones in urban periphery. This phenomenon is considered among the main challenges for urban development. At the same time, new symbols of market economy and related individualization have arisen. The good example is newly-born “car culture”, i.e. the significant increase of the number of cars. Side by side with spatial commercialization, it has gradually limited pedestrians’ and cyclists’ mobility in the cities. Serbia is very distinctive here. Due to the Yugoslav crisis in the 1990s, known as a “blocked transformation“, it has had postponed and harsher transition. The conditions for urban mobility have been especially deteriorated in the case of small and middle-size cities, where both mentioned phenomena have caused traffic jams, the lack of parking space and the general pressure to pedestrian and green zones. Furthermore, it is very questionable how to improve mobility in the time of scarce financial and institutional capacities. Therefore, this research aims to clarify which solutions, especially easy implementable and inexpensive, can be used for the improvement of urban mobility in Šabac as a typical middle-size Serbian city. This is important task due to the inadequate treatment of the mobility in the current general urban plan of Šabac. The foundation for the research is the theoretical knowledge of urban mobility, which will be customized in relation to Serbian planning and legislative framework. Then, it will be implemented through the study on Šabac. The research is also created to be proactive – the main results and findings of the research will be used for the new general urban plan of Šabac, which is currently in the first stage of preparations.