Community Smarts in Grassroots Initiatives to Support Cycling and Walking in Large Urban Areas

Abstract

In the popular imagination, smart mobility, much like the smart city, is a high-tech utopia of mobility efficiency and environmental sustainability. However, a growing body of literature is questioning the promises associated with “digital solutions,” particularly with respect to the neoliberal rationales behind their deployment. On the other hand, relatively few scholars have taken the same critical analysis to smart mobility. In this article we draw on interviews with leaders of grassroots organizations that support walking and cycling among marginalized communities in São Paulo and London to argue that “smart” interventions in active transportation do not have to be top-down, technocratic, or necessarily digital, though they may be so, when informed by community input. We suggest that the locally sensitive knowledge behind grassroots initiatives may demonstrate a form of “community smarts” that enhances capabilities and itself informs whether or not, and if so how, to use digital technologies to advance social and environmental missions.