Equitable Urban Mobility

This report is for those working in transport planning and in policy and who are interested in understanding the link between equitable mobility and health. This report will lay out the need for equitable solutions around transport, how health is related to mobility, and a breakdown of equitable mobility zones.

Currently, most cities are facing a four part problem: 

1. the movement of people, goods, and services is stalling or very slow, 

2. the stalling is causing a great deal of environmental pollutants that are harming the health of people and biodiversity, 

3. the poor distribution of transport system is resulting in economic and health inequities, and 

4. most transport systems are in deep decay, which makes them incapable of coping with climate change (1, 2, 3, 4). 

Anytime a problem or challenge is multifactorial it needs a systemic lens rather than a one-factor solution. For example, at the moment, cities are pushing for the reduction of personal car use; creating “the 15 minute city”, designating Low Traffic Neighborhoods (LTNs), campaigning for active transport, and introducing various electric vehicles (EV) to help solve the air pollution and transport problem. However, these are rudimentary and binary solutions which do not actually address the deep systemic problems that create the most burden on our transport systems.

Furthermore, these solutions are pitting people against each other, as some people still need cars, some people do not have the urban affordances to participate in active transport, and others are being gentrified out of the “15-minute city experience” (1, 2, 3). 

Finally, these one-factor solutions can lead the public and policy discourse into binary/opposing conversations (“Yes” to LTNs/“No” to LTNs). This binary discourse risks creating more inequity in cities, and it can mask old ones. This is not to say that these solutions on their own are not healthy (1, 2); the problem is that implementing them without looking at the systemic inequities of cities carries biases that risk erasing the needs of already marginalised communities and peoples, thereby increasing their burden. For example, active transport can increase health, however, if a person is being active in an area with high traffic and dangerous crossings, they can be at risk for respiratory problems and traffic accidents (1, 2). 

In this paper we are encouraging all those working in planning and policy to think ecologically and in an ecosystemic way to help bring forward equitable modes of transport that keep people and biodiversity healthy. 

Contributors

• Araceli Camargo, MSc Neuroscience (Kings College London)

• Daniel Akinola-Odusola, MSc Neuroimaging (Kings College London)

• Josh Artus, Urbanist