Urban Mobility

We explain what urban mobility or urban transport is and what problems it faces. Also, what is sustainable urban mobility.

What is urban mobility?

Urban mobility or urban transport It is the set of methods and systems for transporting passengers and goods that take place within a city and that allow daily communication between the different parts of the city. It is a fundamental aspect of life and the social and economic rhythm of cities, within which different technologies, urban planning and economic actors operate.

In cities at the beginning of the 21st century, urban mobility is diverse and massive, and includes methods such as:

• public transportation. It refers to the set of vehicles, automotive or other types, that circulate daily through the city, transporting the population and allowing them to travel quickly from one point to another. Examples of this are the subway, the bus, urban trains or trams.
• Transportation of goods. It refers to the different private transport vehicles for materials and products, which transport their content from one point to another in the city, whether to replace merchandise, raw materials, spare parts for machinery, among other goods. Examples of this are moving trucks, refrigerated food cellars or trucks that carry consumer products to stores.
• Personal transportation. It refers to the different non-massive methods of transporting people in the city, that is, those that transport a single passenger or a few who travel together. Examples of this are private vehicles (cars, motorcycles, bicycles), taxis and pedestrians.

City scholars, such as urban planners, architects and sociologists, give an important place to urban mobility in their understanding of the city ecosystem. This is because mobility can immensely facilitate and improve people's quality of life (or on the contrary make it much more difficult), which also translates into greater safety and productivity margins.

Continue with: Urban Geography

Urban mobility problems

Urban mobility faces important challenges for the present and the future, both in developed cities and in developing countries. Among the main problems facing urban mobility are:

• The traffic jam. Public transport networks and roads for motor vehicles are not always sufficient to ensure quick and easy flow from one point to another. The coincidence of work schedules produces in large cities the existence of “peak hours”, that is, periods in which the public transport service becomes overcrowded and the highways collapse due to the volume of simultaneous vehicles. This causes people to lose time in transportation, instead of gaining it as is its original purpose, and immensely reduces the quality of life of citizens, especially those who live far from their place of work.
• Fossil fuel dependence. The vast majority of urban transportation systems depend on different fossil fuels, such as gasoline or natural gas, the combustion of which produces greenhouse gases and other toxic substances that affect the air in cities. The excessive dependence on this type of motorization systems in the world impoverishes the health of city residents and also contributes to global warming and climate change.
• The expansion of the urban area. The growth of cities, especially those that lack appropriate urban planning, generates the need for longer trips, since the bulk of contemporary economic activity is concentrated in cities. Thus, cities have more and more people living far from their work, which forces more people to move along longer journeys, which requires more available time.

Sustainable urban mobility

Sustainable urban mobility is part of the remodeling projects of the modern world in the face of the climatic and environmental pressures of the 21st century, which implies specific measures to achieve fast, efficient and healthy urban transport. This is one of the main concerns of contemporary urban planners and sociologists, and implies the adoption of measures such as the following:

• Abandonment of motor transport especially from means that operate on fossil fuels, and adoption of electrical systems instead. Failing that, replacing gasoline with natural gas, which is less polluting.
• Promotion of transportation on foot, by bicycle and other means more physically active for the individual.
• Promotion of mass transportation and of car-pooling (“car sharing”) to reduce the number of cars on the road at the same time.
• Expansion of train networks trams and subways in the city.
• Integration of different means of transport to generate faster and easier routes.
• Changes in the rate model of public transport, to adopt flat rates and monthly or quarterly passes that encourage its use.

The purpose of these measures is to move decisively towards sustainable cities, that is, friendly to the environment and that promote a healthier lifestyle.

Urban mobility pyramid

The pyramid of urban mobility is a graphic representation of the ideal proportion of the different urban transportation systems and methods that would be necessary to achieve sustainable mobility. That is, it is an ideal model of urban transportation organization, which consists of six levels or steps that make up an inverted pyramid, with its widest end at the top and its narrowest end at the end.

On each step there is a transportation method, depending on how much it should be used and how massive its diffusion should be. The six steps of the ideal pyramid of urban mobility are:

• First step. The first step and the widest of all, covers pedestrians, that is, those who move around the city on foot. This group must be the largest of all those traveling through the city.
• Second step. The second step is still quite wide and covers cyclists (or users of other similar self-propelled vehicles). The use of bicycles as public transport is efficient, healthy, does not pollute and promotes a physically active lifestyle. This, however, requires investment in cycle paths and public bicycle systems.
• Third step. The third step is already an intermediate step and it contains mass public transportation systems, such as buses, trams, subways and electric trains. These systems must be as friendly as possible to the environment, and logically they will be the priority for those who cannot use the two previous steps.
• Fourth step. The fourth step is reserved for goods transport vehicles, generally medium or large trucks, whose journey through the city is punctual, although essential.
• Fifth step. The fifth step, already one of the narrowest, corresponds to private shared-use vehicles (car pool either car-share), for citizens who share a work environment or who travel to the same place. The idea is that the use of private vehicles is as limited as possible, so that the space, time and resources invested in the journey serve to take more than one person to their destination.
• Sixth step. The last step of the pyramid is occupied by private vehicles that transport a single person, understood as a waste of resources that should take place only when strictly necessary. This includes people who live far from their workplace and travel alone, for example.

Examples of urban mobility

Some examples of urban mobility situations in different places around the world are:

• Urban mobility in Mexico. Being an eminently urban country (7 out of 10 citizens live in the city), Mexico faces serious difficulties in terms of urban transportation, especially in Mexico City, where the concentration of motor vehicles is such that the air quality has deteriorated significantly over the decades. Even so, the use of private vehicles continues to increase (by 5.3% annually, according to studies). In the capital, investment in massive and efficient public transport systems is more urgent than ever, as the average traffic speed has been reduced to only about 15 km per hour per vehicle.
• Urban mobility in Brazil. The Brazilian urban mobility model faces its own contradictions at the beginning of the 21st century. With a history of investments in the highway model and large extensions of roads, it privileges the private motor vehicle, in some cases as an escape from a poor quality public transportation system. In large Brazilian cities, such as São Paulo, it is estimated that an average citizen spends 45 days a year stuck in traffic jams. A national rethinking of the system is urgently needed, which even today offers numerous facilities for buyers of private vehicles and relatively cheap fuel prices, which promotes a highly polluting and inefficient model of urban transportation.
• Urban mobility in Argentina. As in other cases, urban mobility in Argentina differs greatly when comparing the large capital city of Buenos Aires, or other large cities such as Córdoba or Rosario. The majority public transportation system in the country is made up of buses (“colectivos”) and, in some locations, a network of freight trains and passenger transportation. In the case of the capital, underground transport is added to the bus system and the railway network, in a network whose expansion is progressing much more slowly than the city needs, and this has not allowed it to completely displace the use of the automobile. particular. Initiatives such as bike paths and other types of short-distance personal transportation have made timid appearances in a city that houses several million inhabitants during the day.

Continue with: Urban population

References

• “Sustainable mobility” on Wikipedia.
• “What is urban mobility and its challenges in Latin America?” (video) at the Andean Development Corporation (CAF).
• “Urban Mobility” in Esmartcity.es.
• “The pyramid of urban mobility” at the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) of the European Union.