Rethinking the Contextual Factors Influencing Urban Mobility: A New Holistic Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Urbanisation, urban mobility (active travel), and public health continue to be three defining issues of the 21st century. Today, more than half of humanity lives in cities, a proportion that is expected to reach 70% by 2050. Not surprisingly, urbanisation has significant impacts on mobility, health, and well-being. Today’s cities struggle with health challenges such as those that are either a direct result of infectious and non-communicable diseases or issues related to violence and injuries. According to the World Health Organisation, the lack of suitable space in urban areas for physical activities and active living has turned cities into epicentres for diseases. The concept of urban mobility and its connection to health is not new. However, the ways through which a healthy city objective is achieved are poorly investigated in the academic literature. Accordingly, this article proposes a holistic conceptual framework by consolidating knowledge around factors impacting urban mobility by adopting a scoping review methodology to determine the field’s scope, coverage, and existing knowledge gap. To achieve the above objectives, 3,189 research articles and book chapters published between 2014 and 2021 were screened. A total of 92 studies were identified as eligible for inclusion in the scoping review. This approach revealed the importance of understanding urban mobility and healthy cities and of identifying and enacting associated enablers. Covid-19 has amplified the urgency of giving attention to these issues. The scoping review also showed a need for further research that investigates the future of urban mobility and healthy cities. A conceptual framework has been drawn from the literature to guide such future research.

Problems of financing urban mobility resilience in Poland

“…-mass events ; -system maintenance ; -congestion Ge & Zhang, 2022;Scheurer, 2016); -violent weather events and natural disasters (Chaiechi et al, 2022;Moraci et al, 2020); -terrorist attacks ; -absence of staff operating urban transport systems due to illness or strike ; -failures of public transport system components Moraci et al, 2020;Sun et al, 2022); -a supra-local scope:…”

“…-crises related to the price and availability of energy carriers used to power urban transport systems (Fernandes et al, 2019;Leung et al, 2018); -public health crises, e.g. COVID-19 (Campisi et al, 2020;Chaiechi et al, 2022;Hasselwander et al, 2021;Li & Xu, 2022;Liouta et al, 2022;Nikiforiadis et al, 2020;Teixeira et al, 2021;2022;Thombre & Agarwal, 2021;Zhang et al, 2021;Zhou et al, 2021a); -climate risks (Chaiechi et al, 2022;Lanza & Durand, 2021). The listed phenomena are not a closed catalogue -they are identified, researched and most frequent.…”

“…As it turns out, the basis for building resilient mobility is the efforts to build sustainable mobility by ensuring an efficient public transport system and high availability of alternative mobility infrastructurewalking, cycling or using UTO devices (Campisi et al, 2020(Campisi et al, , 2020Dias et al, 2021;Hasselwander et al, 2021;Li & Xu, 2022;Liouta et al, ;Moraci et al, 2020;Nikiforiadis et al, 2020;Shaer & Haghshenas, 2021;Teixeira et al, 2021;2022;Thombre & Agarwal, 2021;Zhou et al, 2021a). Particular attention is given to urban planning issues towards building decentralised, 15-minute cities, allowing for the efficient use of soft mobility (Chaiechi et al, 2022;Fernandes et al, 2019;Nikiforiadis et al, 2020;Shaer & Haghshenas, 2021). The need to promote alternative forms of work provision to reduce the burden on urban mobility networks is also indicated (Leung et al, 2018).…”

Syn(En)ergies in neighbourhood regeneration. Al Safarat experimental laboratory in transition

“…Compared to the current trend in the Gulf countries where new designs prevail, the methodology adopted set up a critical analysis to determine the possible role of neighbourhood regeneration in the energy transition. The methodology made use of an analysis of potential and critical factors, which made it possible to identify guidelines intended to inform the energy transition process of the selected neighbourhood of Al Safarat through an integrated approach that pays attention to the community, urban quality, and well-being (Chaiechi et al, 2022). collocati spazi pubblici, commerciali, uffici, hotel e la moschea del venerdì, fulcro centrale del percorso (Fig.…”

“…La metodologia adottata ha impostato una lettura critica per far emergere il ruolo possibile della rigenerazione dei quartieri nella transizione energetica, rispetto alla tendenza attuale nei paesi del Golfo in cui prevalgono le nuove progettazioni. La metodologia si è avvalsa di un'analisi di potenzialità e criticità che ha permesso di identificare delle linee guida che intendono informare il processo di transizione energetica del quartiere selezionato di Al Safarat, attraverso un approccio integrato che pone attenzione alla comunità, alla qualità urbana e al benessere (Chaiechi et al, 2022).…”