Country Profile · LITHUANIA
Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning in Lithuania
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National overview
In Lithuania, sustainable mobility planning is a well-established part of municipal and national transport policy. The country created a clear national framework early and translated it into local planning practice on a broad scale. As a result, sustainable mobility functions as a mainstream planning instrument used by major cities, resort municipalities and smaller urban areas.
A defining feature of the Lithuanian model is its rapid and coordinated roll-out. National guidance adopted in 2015 enabled the first large group of municipalities to prepare plans during the 2014–2020 period, and the national ministry now maintains a broad public list of approved plans covering both the main metropolitan centres and smaller municipalities.
Another important characteristic is continuity. Lithuania did not stop at the first generation of plans. A large share of municipalities have already renewed, revised or are preparing to revise their plans, and several cities now work with updated action plans rather than static one-off documents. This gives the Lithuanian approach a distinctly programmatic character: sustainable mobility planning is treated as an ongoing cycle of analysis, prioritisation, implementation and revision.
Lithuania also stands out for the breadth of issues covered by its planning model. The updated national guidance integrates public transport, active mobility, road safety, mobility management, urban logistics, accessibility, alternative fuels, intelligent transport systems, innovation and TEN-T interchange infrastructure. This gives Lithuanian plans a genuinely multimodal and implementation-oriented profile.
A further strength of the Lithuanian context is the close link between sustainable mobility planning and wider urban development practice. In the largest cities, mobility plans are connected with long-term territorial planning, public transport modernisation, cycling policy, parking management and low-emission transition. In smaller cities, they are increasingly used as practical frameworks for local accessibility, street redesign, road safety and active mobility.
National frameworks or requirements
Lithuania has one of the clearest national planning frameworks for sustainable mobility in the region. In 2015, the Ministry of Transport and Communications adopted national guidelines for the preparation of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans. In 2022, these recommendations were updated and renamed as Guidelines on the Preparation of Sustainable Mobility Plans. The change was substantive: the revised framework made clear that sustainable mobility planning is relevant not only for cities in the narrow sense, but also for regions and other functional urban areas.
The framework is closely aligned with both national and European strategic priorities. The updated guidance reflects the new European Urban Mobility Framework, the Green Deal and the Lithuanian Transport Development Programme for 2022–2030. It also defines ten thematic areas that structure the content of plans and ensure consistency across municipalities.
Institutionally, the framework is reinforced by a permanent coordination mechanism. A Commission for Sustainable Mobility Plans oversees and coordinates changes in the plans, bringing together public-sector experts from different disciplines under the leadership of the Ministry.
Funding and contact point
In Lithuania, sustainable mobility planning is directly connected with implementation funding. For the municipalities that prepared plans during the first national wave, the 2021–2027 EU Funds Investment Programme includes a dedicated sustainable urban mobility component supporting measures such as zero-emission public transport vehicles, charging and refuelling infrastructure, micro-mobility integration and other greenhouse-gas-reducing interventions. This gives the plans a clear operational role: they are not only strategic documents, but gateways to implementation.
The central national institution in this field is the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania. The ministry created the national methodological framework, coordinates the Sustainable Mobility Plans Commission and maintains a publicly accessible page listing approved plans across the country
Contact point: Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania
Data and monitoring
In Lithuania, sustainable mobility planning is built on structured diagnosis, thematic analysis and action programming. The national model requires plans to move beyond general policy declarations and to address concrete thematic fields such as public transport performance, active mobility, traffic safety, logistics, accessibility and intelligent transport systems. This creates a planning culture in which mobility plans rest on evidence and measurable priorities.
Municipal practice confirms this approach. Panevėžys published full analytical and thematic volumes and has since updated its action-plan volumes. Klaipėda publicly links its plan to implementation and monitoring, while Vilnius publishes both the plan itself and a separate action plan up to 2027. Lithuanian cities therefore use the SUMP as a living instrument that connects analysis, measures and follow-up.
The Lithuanian system can be described as methodical, cumulative and implementation-oriented. Its monitoring logic is expressed through a combination of structured local plans, revised action programmes and ministry-level coordination of the overall framework.