Mobility transition is a set of social, technological and political processes of converting traffic (including freight transport) and mobility to sustainable transport with renewable energy resources, and an integration of several different modes of private transport and local public transport. It also includes social change, a redistribution of public spaces, and different ways of financing and spending money in urban planning. The main motivation for mobility transition is the reduction of the harm and damage that traffic causes to people (mostly but not solely due to collisions) and the environment (which also often directly or indirectly affects people) in order to make (urban) society more livable, as well as solving various interconnected logistical, social, economic and energy issues and inefficiencies.
Mobility went through many transitions in the 19th and 20th centuries. Canal boats, Steam railways and bicycles largely replaced journeys afoot and by horse, and steamships replaced sailing ships. Each later changed to internal combustion engines and, in the case of many railways, electricity. They in turn were partly replaced by automobile transport and aviation.
Motivation
Environmental damage An important goal is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2. To achieve the goal set in the Paris Agreement, that is, to restrict global warming to clearly below 2 °C, the burning of fossil fuels is to be discontinued around 2040. Because the CO2 emissions of traffic practically need to be reduced to zero, the measures taken so far in the transport sector are not sufficient in order to achieve the climate change mitigation goals that have been set.
Air pollution A mobility transition also serves health purposes in the metropolitan regions and large cities and is intended in particular to counteract the massive air pollution. For example, in Germany in 2015, traffic caused about 38% of human-related nitrogen oxide emissions., Format: PDF, KBytes: 2326 accessible at According to Lelieveld et al. (2015), air pollution from land traffic alone killed around 164,000 people in 2010; in Germany alone, it was over 6,900 people. A 2017 study by the same lead author concluded that air pollution from road traffic in Germany causes 11,000 deaths every year that could potentially be avoided. This figure is 3.5 times the number of fatalities from accidents. To demonstrate how much road traffic contributes to air pollution in Germany, for every 100 inhabitants, 58 of them owned passenger cars, according to Federal Statistical Office of Germany.
Accident fatalities, quality of life, aggressive behaviour Further motives for the mobility transition are the desire for less noise, streets with quality of life and lower accident risks (see also Vision Zero). According to estimates by the European Environment Agency, 113 million people in Europe are affected by road noise at unhealthy levels. With increasing traffic and commuter numbers, many citizens also wished for more attractive places to spend time in public spaces. (press release) A mobility transition therefore also serves to increase the quality of life.
The mobility transition is also seen by some as a means of reducing aggressive behaviour in traffic (road rage) and in society. Studies indicate that people in large and expensive cars are more likely to behave recklessly.Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior, Piff et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2012, 109 (11) 4086-4091; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1118373109 According to the German Verkehrsklima 2020 (Traffic Mood 2020) study, women feel more insecure in traffic than men, and they want more controls and stricter laws. On the other hand, the "evil eye" design of vehicles is increasingly used by manufacturers to sell vehicles to drivers who want to feel strong and superior on the road. Accident reporting by the press and the police sometimes paints a distorted picture.
Traffic congestion Traffic congestion has been increasing in streets and roads. Traditional traffic policy usually relies on expanding the roads to solve the congestion problem. Worldwide, the main causes are urbanisation and the purchase of more automobiles as prosperity increases. A return to more public and non-motorised transport is likely in the future. .
Peak oil
Petroleum production is approaching its peak, or by some estimates may already have been passed in the 2020s. The Earth's oil reserves are finite, and oil extraction will become inadequate to power as many petroleum-fueled vehicles. Researchers have proposed changing to transport that uses less fuel.
Mobility transition concept Origins
There has been criticism of automotive cities and car dependency since at least the 1960s. In the Netherlands, Provo Luud Schimmelpennink's 1965 White Bicycle Plan was an early attempt to stop the rising death toll due to car-related traffic accidents, and to stimulate cycling as a safer and healthier alternative for short-distance travel in the city of Amsterdam. Although the plan itself was a complete failure, it drew widespread publicity and influenced urban planning ideas around the world – with the white bicycle becoming 'an almost mythical worldwide symbol for a better world'. It inspired the emergence of both strongly anti-car movements such as Kabouter (Gnome), Amsterdam Autovrij ("Amsterdam Car-Free") and De Lastige Amsterdammer ("The Troubled/Troublesome Amsterdammer"), as well as pro-cycling movements in Amsterdam and elsewhere in the Netherlands in the early 1970s.
A prominent example was protest group Stop de Kindermoord ("Stop the Child Murder"), founded in 1972 (formalised in 1973) by a journalist from Eindhoven whose young daughter was killed in a traffic accident, and shortly thereafter another daughter of his was almost killed as well. The movement highlighted how lethally dangerous traffic had become for children in particular, and that the authorities had failed to acknowledge and address the problem. It mobilised parents, teachers, journalists, other citizens and politicians; even right-wing politicians, who had traditionally promoted automobile interests, were influenced by the campaign and became more willing to adopt preventive measures. In Autokind vs Mankind (1971) and On the Nature of Cities (1979), American author Kenneth R. Schneider vehemently criticised the excesses of automobile dependence and called for a struggle to halt and partially reverse negative developments in transportation, although he was largely ignored at the time.
An early theorist on mobility transitions was American cultural geographer Wilbur Zelinsky, whose 1971 paper "The Hypothesis of the Mobility Transition" formed the basis of what has become known as the Zelinsky Model. In 1975, Austrian civil engineer and transportation planner Hermann Knoflacher sought to promote cycling traffic in Vienna. He caricatured the enormous spatial demands of automobiles with his self-invented Gehzeug ("walking gear/vehicle").
Definitions and scope
The German dictionary Duden defines 'mobility transition' (German: Verkehrswende) as "fundamental conversion of public transport [especially with ecological objectives]" (German: „grundlegende Umstellung des öffentlichen Verkehrs [besonders mit ökologischen Zielvorstellungen]"). Adey et al. (2021) defined 'mobility transition' as 'the necessary and inevitable transformation from a world in which mobility is dominated by the use of fossil fuels, the production of greenhouse gases and the dominance of automobility to one in which mobility entails reduced or eliminated fossil fuels and GHG emissions and is less dependent on the automobile.'
According to a 2016 thesis paper by Agora Verkehrswende – a joint initiative of Stiftung MercatorStiftung Mercator ("Mercator Foundation", named after Gerardus Mercator) is a German non-profit organisation which promotes equal opportunities, social cohesion, respect, tolerance, cosmopolitanism and protection of nature and the environment. and the European Climate Foundation – the goal of a traffic transition (Verkehrswende) in Germany is ensuring climate neutrality in transport by 2050. It must be based on two pillars: Mobility transition (Mobilitätswende): The goal is a significant reduction of energy consumption. The mobility transition is intended to bring about a qualitative change in traffic behaviour (Verkehrsverhalten), in particular avoiding and relocating traffic. An efficient design of the traffic systems without restricting mobility should be achieved. Energy transition in traffic (Energiewende im Verkehr, see also phase-out of fossil fuel vehicles): In order to decarbonise traffic, the conversion of the energy supply of traffic towards renewable energy is considered a necessity.
A mobility transition also includes a cultural change, in particular a re-evaluation of "the street". Currently, the primary purpose of streets is to direct traffic through the city with as little disruption as possible. In the future, the dominance of the car should give way to equal rights for all modes of transport.
In an expanded definition, the mobility transition is distinguished from a pure propulsion transition on the one hand to a fundamental mobility transition on the other:, Format: PDF, KBytes: 2940
Propulsion transition (Antriebswende): the gradual replacement of internal combustion engines by those powered by hydrogen, fuel cells or battery-electric power. Traffic transition (Verkehrswende): private car traffic is reduced or replaced by other modes of transportation. In the large cities and metropolitan regions in particular, the focus is increasingly on establishing and spreading alternative means of transport - from the expansion of public transport to the promotion of so-called active transport (pedestrian and bicycle traffic), the approval of new electrified micro-vehicles such as e-scooters and the range of different mobility services (the so-called MaaS, "mobility as a service"). Mobility transition (Mobilitätswende): This perspective takes into account not only the distances travelled and the means of transport used for them, but also the socio-economic, cultural and spatial dynamics and constraints that cause the need to overcome distances. These include, for example, settlement and transport policies, housing and labour markets, social policy and migration. The need to quickly overcome distances is not understood as an invariant characteristic of people, but as part and prerequisite of the current, growth-oriented capitalist shape of society.
In some cases, a mobility transition is also presented as a paradigm shift of the 'understanding of ownership'. Collective use of means of transport makes it possible to use modes of transportation 'adapted to specific needs', such as carsharing, peer-to-peer carsharing, bicycle-sharing systems. It also enables connecting different modes of transportation to one another on a route to be travelled. Electromobiles could better exploit their advantages in networking with other means of transport. Electric vehicles adapted to the respective uses can be small or large depending on the application, and do not (always) have to be designed for long distances. A suitable charging infrastructure is required. Under certain circumstances, in such an environment it will no longer be necessary to own private transport for one's own use.