Smart and Resilient Urban Futures for Sustainability in the Post COVID-19 Era: A Review of Policy Responses on Urban Mobility

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has put lifestyles in question, changed daily routines, and limited citizen freedoms that seemed inalienable before. A human activity that has been greatly affected since the beginning of the health crisis is mobility. Focusing on mobility, we aim to discuss the transformational impact that the pandemic brought to this specific urban domain, especially with regards to the promotion of sustainability, the smart growth agenda, and the acceleration towards the smart city paradigm. We collect 60 initial policy responses related to urban mobility from cities around the world and analyze them based on the challenge they aim to address, the exact principles of smart growth and sustainable mobility that they encapsulate, as well as the level of ICT penetration. Our findings suggest that emerging strategies, although mainly temporary, are transformational, in line with the principles of smart growth and sustainable development. Most policy responses adopted during the first months of the pandemic, however, fail to leverage advancements made in the field of smart cities, and to adopt off-the-shelf solutions such as monitoring, alerting, and operations management.

COVID-19 and City Space: Impact and Perspectives

“…Similarly, existing open places in cities will likely be subjected to the transformation, both in terms of spatialphysical characteristics and the offered contents, as the pandemic revealed their current weaknesses [116] such as insufficient area, uneven distribution, or unequal accessibility to green areas [11,94]. In spring 2020 in France, for instance, the maximum allowed radius distance from the residence (2 km) disabled the access to open green spaces for many urban dwellers [117]. In cities where green areas were closed, the citizens were jogging and exercising on pedestrian walkways, bicycle lanes, and even on traffic roads, which in some cases resulted with overcrowding and interpersonal conflicts [116].…”

Innovation Trajectories for a Society 5.0

“…Consequently, the IoT improves the interactivity and efficiency of critical infrastructures, such as those used in transport [31,45,55], in security [19,56,57], in education [16], and in healthcare [20,58]. Furthermore, IoT allows physical objects to mimic human characteristics, such as sight and hearing [59,60], the decision-making process for communicating [25,61], and the sharing of information and the coordination of actions with each other [23,46,48]. These abilities turn simple objects into intelligent devices that can operate in real time [29,31], adapt to circumstances, and function without human intervention or supervision [59,62].…”

Evolution of urban mobility behaviour in Brussels as a result of the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…The ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic has severely challenged the resilience of cities across the globe. It has changed priorities, put lifestyles into question and raised awareness about alternative ways cities could be designed (Kakderi et al, 2021 ; Macharis et al, 2021 ). The long timeframe of the crisis means that human behaviours and routines are starting to change (Kakderi et al, 2021 ), as can be seen, for example, in the uptake of biking (König & Dreßler, 2021 ).…”

“…It has changed priorities, put lifestyles into question and raised awareness about alternative ways cities could be designed (Kakderi et al, 2021 ; Macharis et al, 2021 ). The long timeframe of the crisis means that human behaviours and routines are starting to change (Kakderi et al, 2021 ), as can be seen, for example, in the uptake of biking (König & Dreßler, 2021 ). It has also highlighted the importance of taking public health threats into account in transport policymaking (Zhang, 2020 ).…”

“…This is especially true considering that the outbreaks of infectious diseases have, throughout the centuries, shaped societies and cultures (Huremović, 2019 ). As urban mobility is changing quickly in terms of technology, business models and behaviours, an analogy with the COVID‐19 disruption can provide a useful framework for policymakers, especially keeping in mind that crises can provide opportunities for transformation, as they require quick and agile actions (Kakderi et al, 2021 ). However, there seems to be little literature that analyses the longer‐term changes in the mobility sector following the varying levels of COVID‐19 restrictions.…”