An octopus and a circle at the basis of a framework for the evaluation of sustainable mobility

Abstract

Worldwide, transportation authorities are keen to implement sustainable development measures and to move toward a more sustainable mobility for people and goods. However, this implementation entails a rise in the need for a sustainable development assessment framework for mobility, in order to compare different projects or to monitor a given area. This paper addresses the issue of conceptualization and standardization of the evaluation of sustainable development in transportation, by proposing a framework, which seeks to meet the various needs of transportation planners. This framework aims to provide an exhaustive view of the sustainability features (through its three main di-mensions), as well as to clarify the concept of sustainability in transportation by embedding links between actions and impacts. This paper presents the basis of the framework developed as an interactive tool: (1) a representation named ‘Octopus’ categorizing the impact of mobility on the three dimensions of sustainable development and (2) a circular representation, named ‘Causal circle’, which integrates causal links between actions and impacts on these same dimensions.