A methodological approach in order to support decision-makers when defining Mobility and Transportation Politics

1. Introduction: Mobility policies as key issues of the modern society

Mobility can be defined by “the need of the human being to participate in different activities”. However,
since those activities are often in separated places, there is a need of moving around from place to place
in order to participate on those same activities (Santos, 1994).

On the other hand, the alternatives offered by the transportation system (both infra-structures and
services) constraint the activities and mobility patterns the citizen might enrol. Therefore, the mobility
concept integrates the reasons capable of influencing the individual participation in certain activities, but
also, their impact in the transportation system.

In order to act on the individual mobility it is important to understand which elements the citizen is exposed
to, and to which extent those elements impact the option for a certain trip, for a certain path, destiny, or for
selecting one specific mode of transportation . The variability of reasons for an individual’s own choice is
huge. Even if we could find a relationship between choice and social status, or familiar situation(among
other reasons), there would still remain much to explain.

If we want to think on the subject of mobility policies, the complexity increases even more. Common
mobility issues can be linked with different kinds of actors such as:

These actors have clear individual interests related with their own easy, cheap and safe mobility that
usually brings negative aspects like low costs coverage (in case of public transport), a high level of urban
space consumption and loss of urban image (private transport abuse, illegal parking), and even
environmental damage.

The decision-maker is usually on the other side of the problem. In his mind he feels that he has to
attend to the individual problems of those who elected him. But in a global context those
individual demands are not only incompatible among them, but also are generally unsustainable
from the society point of view (Viegas, 2002)

Still, is possible to achieve better quality of live by managing mobility issues in a sustainable way.

Transportation and mobility related subjects are the support infra-structure of society.
Transportation facilities such as roads, railroads and public transport services, produce cross
impacts in other areas of equal social, environmental and economic importance.

In fact, there is a widespread acceptance that integrating decisions at the areas of land use
planning, transportation and environment policy is crucial for sustainable development. For
instance, the final report of the ECMT-OECD project on Implementing Sustainable Urban Travel
Policies states:

“Sustainability requires that policy-making for urban travel be viewed in a holistic sense: that
planning for transport, land-use and the environment no longer be undertaken in isolation one
from the other... Without adequate policy co-ordination, the effectiveness of the whole package of

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