Mainstreaming sustainable urban transport: putting the pieces together

Abstract

This chapter argues that policy-makers and the broader public need to be involved in the ultimate derivation of the relevant measures of sustainable urban mobility, and only then will mainstreaming of this concept be achieved. The normative sustainable mobility framework advocated by the author is intended to facilitate making relative judgments about policy options, and is based on the premise that a more sustainable urban mobility provides more accessibility per unit of throughput (mobility). This chapter also argues that from the “strong sustainability” perspective, the throughput metric might build on the “ecological footprint” approach, while in the “weak sustainability” tradition, the throughput metric might look to transport “full-cost” analysis. The proposed operational definition of sustainable urban mobility provides a straightforward way of conceptualizing sustainable mobility in urban areas.