Sustainable Urban mobility in the present, past, and future

Abstract

Making urban mobility more sustainable is a grand challenge, yet urban environments are beacons of hope in delivering this result: authorities are active partners in the mobility transition, and dense cities provide favorable boundary conditions for delivering more sustainable outcomes. AU-turn to the past may present the right recipe for such a mobility transition to take place by making the past “usable.” First, this entails understanding how our currently unsustainable urban mobility has been advocated and how alternative urban mobilities have been decentered. Second, it necessitates unearthing forgotten past practices of sustainable urban mobilities, which can serve as sources of inspiration for today’s challenges. Third, it warrants the analysis of “pockets of persistence,” immaterial and material remnants of the past that provide welcome opportunities to ease the transition toward more sustainable urban mobility.