Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?

Abstract

In recent years the economic and social activities were strongly influenced by the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. Factors such as quality of life and sustainability in urban centres have gained greater visibility and, consequently, greater importance, influencing government officials to make decisions that focus on these issues. It is undeniable that the pandemic accelerated digital technology solutions changes in worldwide cities (Allam and Jones, 2021) which were necessary but not prioritized. Similar changes have been observed in other times when urban spaces and urban transport systems underwent significant changes and remodelling triggered by previous health crises (Corazza and Musso, 2021), although not resembling the extent and severity that Covid-19. Recent literature has shown how these changes took place in different parts of the world and also the impacts of these changes on people's daily lives, in the different dimensions of sustainability, whether social, environmental or economic (Advani, M et al. 2021). Urban mobility is essential for all economic activities and was severely impacted by the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many operational decisions have directly impacted the population, such as interruptions to transport services, which have been gradually resumed, but with protective measures that safeguard people from the risk of infection. These measures generated a change in human behaviour, increasing the demand for micro-mobility means such as bicycles and scooters, among others (Kakderi, C. et al., 2021). This article aims to understand the significant social and environmental impact of the measures adopted in urban mobility in response to the Covid-19 pandemic and to identify the trends and patterns in sustainable urban mobility plans for the principled design of resilient and smart cities.

Design/methodology/approach: To achieve the goal of this work, a literature review is carried out, and an interview with experts in sustainable urban mobility are undertaken. A theoretical framework is developed as a roadmap for future actions.

Findings: Results indicate that in the context of urban mobility, the environmental dimension of sustainability is more often addressed than social dimension. The impact of the surveyed measures on the cities' urban mobility is evident, especially by the increase of micro-mobility, multimodal planning, real-time access to the location and available capacity of transports, and the adoption of emerging Intelligent Transport Systems solutions. However, many articles made evident the fragility of equity access to public transport, being a persistent gap in the social sustainability dimension.

Practical Implications: The presented results can help managers and policy makers to take decisions to build sustainable urban mobility plans able to comprehensively covering the three sustainability dimensions.

Relevance/contribution: This research reported in this paper is anchored in the pioneer research and innovation project - Integrative Learning from Urban Data and Situational Context for City Mobility Optimization (ILU), in the field of artificial intelligence applied to urban mobility that joins the Lisbon city Council and research institutes.

Full text

NATIONAL LABORATORY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
Portugal
Marta Bubicz
Elisabete Arsenio
Rui Henriques
José Barateiro
Sustainable Urban Mobility in response
to Covid-19: What comes next?

Urban Mobility
SUMP
Infrastructure Policies
Tran sport
Modes
Public
Tran sport
Modes
Micro-
mobility
Modes
Individual
Vehicles
Government People
Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?3 –Results -Analysis
Disruption – Vulnerabilities –Behavioural Changes -Inequalities

167 articles analysed
Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?2 -Methodology

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?
üMobility is essential for all economic activities.
üSocial inequalities highlighted
üGender inequality observed
üLow-income regions strongly affected by the interruption of transport services
üMen highly exposed to infection risk in low-income regions
üChanges in human behaviour, causing a mode shift
üIncreasing demand for individual transport (cars) and micro-mobility modes (shared
bicycles, e-scooters)
1 -Introduction
(Abdullah et al., 2021a; J. Aparicio et al., 2021a; Das et al., 2021 ; Campisi et al., 2020a; Mouratidis and Papagiannakis, 2021a; Nikitas et al., 2021).

üAn increase in walking and short journeys is also noted
üConsiderable reductions in air pollution and traffic noise;
üAir quality improvements registered in previously congested cities are associated
with significant health benefits;
üChanges in urban spaces - motivating urban planning processes that favour social
well-being.
üLifting of restrictive measures = preference of individual motorised transport
Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?1 -Introduction
Karaer et al., 2020; Marinello et al., 2021; Jiang et al., 2021; Andara et al., 2021

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?3 –Results -Analysis

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?3 –Results -Analysis

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?3 –Results -Analysis

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?3 –Results -Analysis

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?3 –Results -Analysis

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?3 –Results -Analysis
Main concepts addressed in the literature

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?3 –Results -Analysis
Sustainability Dimensions addressed in the articles

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?
Summary of the findings
4 –Conclusion -What comes next?

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?4 –Conclusion -What comes next?
OPEN QUESTIONS
-What are the implications of Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans for SC operations?
-How City Logistics or Last Mile Logistic is/was affected by Covid-19 measures?
-Life Cycle Assessment of Micro-Mobility Modes considering the land use for
logistics is still not fully addressed (e-commerce changes/growth).
- SUMP, SDGs, Smart Cities, 15 minutes city, Micro-mobility, Active Mobility (?)
New methodologies - 6G technology, Immersive Technologies, Extended Reality

Sustainable Urban Mobility in response to Covid-19: What comes next?4 –Conclusion -What comes next?
Thank you!
martabubicz@gmail.com
This research reported in this paper is anchored in the
pioneer research and innovation project - Integrative
Learning from Urban Data and Situational Context for City
Mobility Optimization (ILU), in the field of artificial
intelligence applied to urban mobility that joins the Lisbon
city Council and research institutes.
Acknowledgments. This work is futher supported by national
funds through FCT under project ILU DSAIPA/DS/0111/2018 and
INESC-ID pluriannual UID/CEC/50021/2019.
ILU
ILU: Research with
Stakeholder
Collaboration