Streamlining the implementation process of urban mobility innovations: Lessons from the ECCENTRIC project in Madrid

Abstract

Success of implementation of innovative measures has been ascribed to “strong local leadership”. The reference to leadership may be considered as recognition of the difficulties innovative measures face to move along local decision-making processes. These processes can be poorly suited, if not hostile, to innovation, and process-related barriers might be seen to be overcome only with the help of political authority. This paper explores the reasons why local decision making processes are poorly suited to innovation in urban mobility and identifies options for process reform. It builds upon the experience of ECCENTRIC, a Horizon 2020 funded project within the EU's CIVITAS initiative, running from 2016 to 2020 and implementing fifty innovative measures in five European cities, including eleven measures in Madrid. CIVITAS requests a process evaluation of all the measures, looking at the context in which measures are implemented. Based on the process evaluation experience in Madrid, this paper argues that this approach to process evaluation is insufficient. The evaluation process should include a more fundamental aspect: The consistency of each measure within the dominant values in the local public policies being applied by the city. In those measures with a transformative ambition, process evaluation should take into consideration their compatibility with the political vision and values in the city. In order to keep the original ambition of innovation, there is a need for reforms in the decision making processes within municipalities, establishing ad hoc procedures that can properly deal with innovation.

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