The sustainable mobility paradigm
Section snippets
The problem
It has often been said that transport planning is at a crisis point and that it underestimates the key challenges facing urban planners (Banister, 2005; Balaker and Staley, 2006; Wickham, 2006). Yet it has also been remarkably robust and it has “survived” all these crises to emerge almost intact, perhaps with some minor alterations. Two fundamental principles are embedded in the approach used, namely that travel is a derived demand and not an activity that people wish to undertake for its own
Transport as a derived demand or as a valued activity?
With respect to the work journey, travel time is important, but as travel patterns change and there is an increase in leisure-based travel, travel time may become more of a positively valued activity (Loo and Chow, 2006; Schlich et al., 2004; Mokhtarian et al., 2006). The notion that all travel is a derived demand may become weaker as incomes rise and as leisure time becomes more valuable (Mokhtarian and Salomon, 2001). Escape theory (Heinze, 2000) hypothesises that leisure mobility is an
Contrasting approaches to transport planning
These two points are both important in terms of understanding the rationale behind transport analysis, as many of the methods used cannot handle travel as a valued activity or travel time reliability. But they also have important implications for transport planning, if it is to embrace the concepts of a sustainable mobility. The primary concerns over the physical dimensions (urban form and traffic) should be balanced by the social dimensions (people and proximity), as illustrated in Table 1.
The
The issues
There has been much discussion over delivering sustainable mobility, and the measures available are well known. There is even agreement between the main actors concerned about what should be done. There is also a growing literature on the barriers to implementation and why outcomes never match up with expectations. The commonly used economic arguments of rationality and complete knowledge do not seem to apply in transport.2
Principles of the sustainable mobility paradigm
The four basic types of actions to achieve sustainable mobility have been outlined in Section 3 and some innovative means by which the people can be involved have been identified in Section 4. The principles of a sustainable mobility paradigm need to combine these elements into a series of consistent policy measures. Four key elements are suggested here:
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Making the best use of technology, including investment in technology in transport modes, information systems and in the transport system
Conclusions
The messages are clear. There is strong support for enlarging the scope of public discourse and empowering the stakeholders through an interactive and participatory process to commit themselves to the sustainable mobility paradigm. The open and active involvement of all parties would be far more effective than the conventional passive means of persuasion. Thus, broad coalitions should be formed to include specialists, researchers, academics, practitioners, policy makers and activists in the
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