From political adoption to implementation : governance and dialogue formats for the municipal mobility transition

Abstract

With its Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP/NUMP), the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg has established a strategic framework for fu-ture mobility development. Yet the political acknowledgement of the plan did not end the process; it opened a demanding implementa-tion phase in which measures must be priori-tised, coordinated across administration, poli-tics and stakeholders, and aligned with limited resources. This paper presents a practice-oriented single-case analysis of how a dia-logue-oriented support format developed by the Hanseatic City of Lüneburg and IGES Mo-bility can address the governance gap between strategic planning and operational implementa-tion. Drawing on the Lüneburg case, the ac-companying conference presentation, public committee documents, structured practitioner reflection and SUMP implementation literature, the paper discusses changing roles, participa-tion expectations, annual prioritisation, moni-toring requirements and links to municipal budget and committee cycles. The findings should be read as analytical propositions from an early implementation case, not as a com-pleted impact evaluation. The paper argues that recurring dialogue formats can stabilise mobility transition processes if they combine transparent prioritisation, stakeholder knowledge, administrative feasibility, political decision-making and a clear learning logic.