How can cities measure the real impact of their sustainable mobility actions — especially the shift towards walking and cycling? UBC, together with experts and cities, has explored the importance of monitoring and evaluation in tracking progress, learning from experience, and making better decisions at the UBC TALKS webinar on 7 October 2025.
The UBC TALKS webinar focused on how to embed Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) into Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs), and how active mobility can be integrated across the whole SUMP cycle. As cities across the Baltic Sea Region work toward climate neutrality, and the sustainability of their mobility systems, right-sized M&E helps turn plans into action. This edition featured practical tools and city cases from UBC member cities, showing how evidence and participation drive better decisions. The webinar was organised together with the SUMPs for BSR project, supported by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme.
The session opened with an introduction by Ira Sibelius, Senior Advisor at the UBC Sustainable Cities Commission. Morgane Juliat, Mobility Consultant at the Rupprecht Consult, outlined how to integrate walking and cycling through every SUMP phase—from diagnosis to implementation and M&E. Marcin Wołek, Assoc. Prof. at the University of Gdańsk then presented the project’s Monitoring & Evaluation Framework, including an Indicator Selector Tool and a Local M&E Plan Template tailored for the needs of small and mid-sized cities. Two city perspectives have shown the examples of how Monitoring and evaluation is done in practice: “Small City, Big Action: Developing Monitoring for Sustainable Mobility in Cēsis” by Madara Jenerte, and “Monitoring Active Mobility in Turku: Lessons from Mobility Hub Data and Citizen Panels” by Oona Uusitalo. The event concluded with “Building Capacity: Training Local Authorities on Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning,” presented by Ira Sibelius and Monika Parafinaitytė-Rae, announcing a free five‑module online training series and a SUMP Clinic for ten selected cities.
Presentations and materials