4.3.2.3 Shifting to enhanced active mobility

Shifting to walking and cycling is known as active mobility or non-motorised transport (NMT), significantly increases human wellbeing and health through lifestyle changes, where individuals engage in physical exercises and enhance social cohesion, a reinforcing feedback that can lead to more demand in NMT (Hanson and Jones, 2015; UNEP, 2018; Marques et al., 2020; Mansoor et al, 2015). Such a shift can be enhanced through different enabling conditions, with prominent examples following here…

Appropriate infrastructure (Figure 4.3.7), including protected pedestrian and bike pathways, can support much greater localised active travel (IPCC 2022; Creutzig et al,. 2022; Brand et al., 2021; Neves and Brand, 2019; Zhang et al., 2018) and, together with more compact urban design, can reduce urban GHG emissions by around 25 per cent. In addition, e-bikes and e-scooters have seen accelerating uptake and could unleash huge future potential in cities’ mobility, leading to reduced congestion and emission reductions (Asensio et al.,2022). 

Cities with cycling strategies, such as Copenhagen and Amsterdam, show how to prioritise non-motorized transport. In its dedicated cycling plan, Amsterdam prioritises cycling through infrastructure and regulations which strives to 1) keep bicycle traffic flowing smoothly; 2) improve bicycle parking; and 3) encouraging considerate cycling (Pucher and Buehler, 2007). Amsterdam is a safe and bike-friendly city, where even toddlers and older people use bikes as the most accessible mode of transport (Feddes and de Lange, 2019). Studies show that cycling is distributed evenly across all income groups for all trip purposes, that cycling rates fall only slightly with age, and that Dutch and Danish women cycle as often as men (Pucher and Buehler, 2007).

Active mobility narratives differ in the Global South context (Mansoor et al., 2022). More than 75 per cent of total daily trips made by Africa’s low-income population are made by walking, compared with 45 per cent by more affluent groups (African Commute, 2018). Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa have set up policies to increase non-motorised transport recognition and accessibility, aiming to create a safe and comfortable environment for pedestrians and cyclists (CDKN, 2021; City of Cape Town, 2005, 2017, 2020, 2021), and also aiming to improve air quality in cities. Replication across more regions and cities could lead to several positive feedbacks.

COVID-19 lockdowns have spurred significant trends in urban mobility, with several reinforcing feedbacks: a rapid expansion in ‘pop-up’ (temporary) urban cycling infrastructure (Becker et al., 2022; Creutzig et al., 2022; Kraus and Koch., 2021), electronic communications replacing many work and personal travel requirements (4.4.5); and revitalised local active transport and e-micro mobility (Goetsch and Quiros, 2020; Newman, 2020; Department of Transport UK, 2021; SLoCaT 2021). The challenge so far has been the ‘stickiness’ of these changes in the longer term. 

Infrastructure and policy design are two key enablers of positive tipping points for active mobility adoption. Peer effects, then, can add on positive and wished feedbacks to accelerate behavioural change (4.4.1). Combining infrastructural enablers, such as compact cities that avoid lengthy trips (Box 4.3.3), fair streets (which feature more space, design and services for walking, bikes and other micro-mobility) and bike/scooter-sharing schemes, with social enablers such as bike training, actions to generate a new culture (Jittrapirom et al., 2023) and policy design (e.g. carbon pricing, subsidies) (Matteoli et al., 2010), get us to the positive tipping point faster. The estimation of infrastructural and social tipping points vary and strongly depend on geographical, environmental, cultural and political context. One key variable is policy readiness: the availability of worked-out detailed policy plans that advance modal shift ready to be implemented when an opportunity occurs (Creutzig et al., 2022). 

There are several success cases worldwide in achieving significant changes in mobility patterns and its externalities, the case of Pontevedra in Spain (Box 4.3.3) being one of the most notable for its vehicle restriction policy. Vehicle restriction schemes set a ‘cordon’ (i.e. a low-emission zone: usually a city centre or a whole city) restricting access for a subset of the vehicle fleet for specific periods or uses to reduce congestion, traffic speeds and/or pollution, and provide better access to non-motorised mobility modes.

Dampening feedbacks of such policies – even if only temporary – are related to social acceptability and the backlash this change can bring when the desire to own a car is spurred. This regulatory instrument can be categorised as shift to move mobility towards cleaner transport modes (Cloke and Layfield, 1996). 

The level of success seen in Pontevedra (Box 4.3.3), which treated private cars without any differentiation, has yet to be achieved elsewhere, where lack of alignment of political will, consistency, technical support and citizens’ involvement prevail. Implementation with partial plate-control systems to differentiate between user groups does not work, as  cities including Athens, Milan, Oslo, Paris, London and Rome have shown. These partial restrictions are mainly aimed at air quality control and reduction in CO₂ emissions (Kuss and Nicholas, 2022). The policies were limited to certain types of vehicles or times of the day or certain number plates allowed to circulate for certain days of the week. These policies differ significantly in ambition and achieved impacts compared to Pontevedra.

In the Global South, several cities, such as Beijing, Jakarta, Mexico City and Bogota, have successfully implemented partial vehicle restriction programmes. With air quality improvement being the primary goal, CO₂ reduction and transformation of the mobility behaviour are perceived as a co-benefit but not the primary objective of the measures.

To achieve the radical change needed for a paradigm shift in urban mobility habits, public institutions need to provide firm and consistent political leadership and ensure public participatory processes, as well as smart land use, with high densities (>4000 inhabitants per sq km) and land use mixtures to allow inhabitants to use non-motorised mobility for most of their activity (e.g. compact or 15-minute cities). The municipality in Pontevedra implemented its public space management in less than one year. To replicate it in more cities and of different sizes will require tailoring to unique challenges while preserving the idea of reducing the hierarchical role of private cars in urban mobility.

Another example of change facilitation in urban transport is the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS). By supplying a wide range of personal transport services, including bike and car-sharing, car rental, underground, rail and bus, through a single digital customer interface, MaaS can alter travel behaviour and demand (more details in 4.4.5.). A full implementation of this concept at the urban scale, linked with other measures such as vehicle restriction schemes, can be a game changer of the urban ecosystem and allow people to have better life quality by reducing costs, urban space devoted to cars, pollution and other externalities. The development of this concept will also be linked to the advance of infrastructure development, urban transport services diversification (4.3.2.4) and business models that provide users with more sustainable options.