Most travel is not undertaken for its own sake, but is a derived demand and involves people travelling to destinations to take part in various activities, from carrying out employment, to purchasing goods, obtaining a service (e.g. eating out), or for social interaction. The nature of these interactions with other sectors – and whether they are physical or virtual events – depends on the business and service delivery models that those sectors employ. Therefore, the overall volume of travel (numbers and lengths of trips) is largely outside the control of the transport sector and, traditionally, is not fully considered by these other sectors when they plan their business strategies and make investment decisions.
The SUMP-PLUS approach to cross-sectoral links builds on the many good examples of cross-sector partnerships (where other sectors collaborate in delivering transport outcomes, such as increasing active travel or reducing air pollution), to consider how the needs of the transport sector might play a fuller role in decisions taken about the locations of goods and services, or the extent to which the internet can replace or reduce physical travel. A shared goal of achieving net zero carbon gives an added incentive for sectors to work collaboratively, to avoid them simply ‘exporting’ carbon, from one to another.
This is a new and very innovative approach and adds ‘Avoid’ measures to reduce travel and carbon, to the armoury of policy measures available to cities, alongside the well-established ‘Shift’ (mode switching) and ‘Improve’ (electrification) measures.
SUMP-PLUS is applying its cross-sectoral links concept within the City Lab of Greater Manchester (links between transport and health sectors), and additionally, in the City Labs of Antwerp, Platanias and Lucca, (links between transport, tourism and logistics sectors).