Sustainable urban mobility planning at the metropolitan scale: a review of current practices and narratives

Abstract

Urban mobility systems often surpass the political-administrative boundaries of local governments. Commuting dynamics are a key variable to establish the functional scope of an urban area. Yet, most sustainable urban mobility plans are being developed by and for municipalities. There are still few experiences at the metropolitan scale. There are even fewer studies about these experiences. Our work addresses this gap. Using purposeful sampling and qualitative content analysis, we examined documents from supranational organizations and metropolitan cases. We argue that a better understanding of the collaborative tools being promoted for and used by metropolitan areas can be used to better inform policy transfer and learning in transportation. We conclude with considerations for future research on the topic.