A participative procedure to select indicators of policies for sustainable urban mobility. Outcomes of a national test

Abstract

Background The assessment of policies for sustainable urban mobility features two basic characteristics: incommensurability and strong uncertainty. This is why multiple dimensions of evaluation and a structured room for collective deliberation and learning should be considered. Methods A participative procedure is used to select a core set of performance indicators of policies for sustainable urban mobility. Citizen participation and stakeholder involvement are obtained through a national sample survey and a deliberative multi-criteria analysis, respectively. This procedure is applied to the Italian case. Results Citizens are more oriented towards reducing private transport costs, air pollution and traffic accidents; stakeholders are more in favour of improving car-free accessibility and reducing the consumption of land and public space generated by urban mobility. The resulting core sets of indicators are highly sensitive to the threshold chosen for the selection. Using a lower cut-off threshold, four performance indicators are shared between the two sets: 'CO2 from transport', 'Quantity and quality of public transport', 'PMx, COVNM, NOx, CO from transport', 'Death and injuries from traffic accident'; using a higher cut-off threshold the two sets feature no intersection. Concluding remarks Further testing at a local scale is needed in order to explicitly consider context-specific objectives, indicators and data; stronger interactions among experts, citizens and stakeholders are needed in order to avoid the generation of equivocal results.

Sustainability Indicators in Assessing Urban Transport Systems

“…The aim of their paper is to compare urban transport systems through European cities, which analysis has been conducted in case of 14 capital cities. Marletto and Mameli (2012) examined a methodology regarding participative procedure in selecting indicators for sustainable urban mobility in Italy. A survey-based selection method has been examined based on stakeholders' appraisal from different fields, regarding performance indicators and policy aims.…”

Urban transportation sustainability assessments: a systematic review of literature

“…Additionally, they show a trend towards evaluations of citizen-related perceptions. Mameli and Marletto (2014), Marletto and Mameli (2012), and Munira and San Santoso (2017) survey citizen opinions on sustainability indicators and policy objectives. Policies are assessed using expert surveys (Palma Lima, da Silva Lima, & da Silva, 2014) and indicator frameworks conceptualised with expert surveys and interviews (Marsden, Kelly, & Snell, 2006).…”

When Is an Innovative Urban Mobility Business Model Sustainable? A Literature Review and Analysis

“…A number of reference articles address the development and application of indicators related to sustainable mobility (see [28]). In this sense, the construction of indicators to assess the sustainability of mobility systems requires their impacts to be considered in a balanced way, in all the dimensions of sustainable development-economic, environmental, and social-because it is not possible to assess sustainable transport without considering the integration of these dimensions [29].…”