Emergency situations can, unexpectedly, be powerful accelerators of change in that they often stimulate rethinking about the ways in which things are being done. This is the case regarding sustainable transport and mobility in the year 2020 where several vulnerabilities have been exposed in the way land use and urban and transport planning have evolved. There is an emerging need to look at this nexus through the lens of systems’ resilience.
The importance of increasing the resilience of urban and transport systems to the negative impact of major events was discussed at a World Leadership Dialogue during the virtual 16th World Congress on Public Health (12–16 October 2020) when the need to sustain positive changes in transport and mobility was stressed.
For the past 3 decades, in reacting to the rapid growth of private motorization, much emphasis has been placed on developing and advocating policies that would reduce emissions of air pollutants, greenhouse gas and noise, prevent deaths and disability due to road-traffic injuries, reduce congestion, and make cities more liveable and inclusive. In this context, the combination of active mobility with convenient public transport and offers of mobility services (for example, car and bike sharing) has gained significant momentum and has been integral to the regeneration of an increasing number of cities around the world.
The current circumstances, however, have brought an additional dimension to the fore, one which increases the importance of promoting safe active mobility. This is the role that it plays in supporting transport and urban resilience by contributing to the health and safety of travellers and supporting the functioning and economic viability of public-transport systems.
The rebalanced distribution of different modes of transport towards reduced car dependency and the increase in safe walking and cycling possibilities, which have emerged in 2020, should also be capitalized on. In 2020, many cities have taken measures to facilitate safe walking and cycling, temporary or permanent, and many citizens have had the possibility of experimenting with active mobility under safer conditions. This has in turn increased the overall flexibility of the transport system and its capacity to quickly respond to emergency scenarios.
It is worth focusing on sustaining these short-term gains in safer and healthier modes of transport. As mentioned by Francesca Racioppi, Head of the European Centre for Environment and Health in Bonn, Germany, “Public spaces are central when we rethink how to prioritize their use and make people, as opposed to vehicles, the centre of them. An emerging, important element of this shift is the realization that city design and the location of services and amenities are integral to enable people to realistically meet most of their daily needs within a convenient walking or cycling distance”. Sustainable transport and mobility, along with urban planning, are the main spokes in this wheel and there is still a lot to learn to continue to keep it turning in the future. In many urban contexts, cities of proximity – where neighbourhood liveability is a priority – may come to represent a new way of living.