This new report by LSE Cities and InnoZ provides insight into how urban transport policy can better leverage new and emerging mobility choices in cities.
Drawing on the LSE Cities/InnoZ household survey of 1,000 residents each in Berlin and London, this report investigates how people’s attitudes towards transport modes, technology and travel frames their willingness to adopt new and more sustainable forms of transport.
The study demonstrates how London and Berlin have both seen a pronounced trend towards new urban mobility with considerable increases in walking, cycling, public and shared transport, as well as substantial reductions in car use and ownership. It reveals that less than one in six residents in each city display a strong identification with car use and ownership. Such shifts have been accompanied by a large proportion of residents in both cities showing openness to new mobility services, with travel applications being used almost daily by one in four of the respondents who owned smartphones.
Philipp Rode, Executive Director of LSE Cities and co-director of the study, said: “Urban mobility in cities like London and Berlin is fundamentally changing, and new tools for policy making to capture the widespread openness towards new forms of urban mobility are needed. Our research indicates that a better understanding of attitudes towards urban travel and the factors that influence changes thereof can play an important role.”
In particular, the report suggests that the use of ICTs may be an extremely effective channel in opening up alternative modal choice as smartphone penetration increases, while a more targeted policy agenda sensitive to both mobility choices and residential patterns and preferences can help to further increase sustainable travel in cities.
The ‘Towards New Urban Mobility’ report was prepared by LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Innovation Centre for Mobility and Societal Change (InnoZ), and supported by the German Federal Ministry for Transport, Building and Urban Development and Deutsche Bank’s Alfred Herrhausen Society.
For more information, and to download the report, click here.
