STEP UP

Strengthening The Effectiveness of Policies for eUropean Pedestrians (STEP UP) is an innovative European project, supported by 8 city and regional partners, aiming to ensure the many walking policies that are emerging at all levels are as effective as possible at delivering the shared vision for a safer, healthier, cleaner and more sustainable Europe. More than 90% of countries in Europe now have a walking policy at the national level. Three quarters of these have been developed since COVID when it became evident that walking needed more commitment, policy attention and resources. Cities and regions have been publishing walking policies at pace too, but often without support.
Together, the STEP UP Project will agree on the processes to follow, the actions to take, and the measures for success, for walking to support sustainable mobility in a greener Europe. A common systemised approach to facilitate a structured and comparable analysis, planning, and implementation of walking policies will ensure this quick, affordable and reliable investment opportunity helps Europe reach several of the SDG commitments and climate targets. A general policy improvement framework will be elaborated to steer the policy improvement throughout the project. Project Partners will be supported to assess their existing policies against the 8 Steps that have proven to help effectiveness. Specific competences will be highlighted as well as gaps where new learnings can be made. Good practice examples identified during the 8 study visits will be translated into the regional context and help to successfully improve the partners existing policy instruments at the regional level. The findings of the interregional learning process will improve the effectiveness of walking policies within the project partners' regions and hopefully inspire many other cities and regions too across Europe.