Racialized Mobility Transitions in Philadelphia: Connecting Urban Sustainability and Transport Justice

Abstract

National level statistics show a decade-long decline in the use of cars in the United States as well as other developed countries. This transition has been connected to growth in more sustainable forms of urban transport such as walking, bicycling, and increased use of transit, as well as changes in urban spatial planning. This article examines the recent trends toward more sustainable mobility in Philadelphia, in order to locate these cultural changes in a specific spatial, cultural, and racial context. The article raises the crucial yet often ignored issue of how urban spatial form and mobility regimes in post-industrial cities like Philadelphia are highly inflected by racial space and racialized mobilities. It suggests that wider trends toward decreasing young white automobility in cities across the U.S. must be situated in relation to changing patterns of suburbanization of poverty, gentrification of city centers, and struggles over public transit access and investment. The specific case is analyzed in relation to multi-level transition theories, cultural analysis of mobility frames and discourses, and the addition of local observation of everyday transport drawing on perspectives from mobilities research. A focus on racial space and transport inequality adds new insights to understanding the limits of any transition that may be taking place in the American automobility regime, and it expands how such transitions are being culturally framed and promoted.