Sustainable urban mobility: some basic principles and solutions

Abstract

This paper is about how to achieve a harmonious development in our cities and not end up transforming into a suffering for its inhabitants. For this, we begin by defining sustainability concept and what elements should be associated with sustainable urban development. Then, we concentrate in the vehicular congestion concept which one of the biggest challenges in the field of urban mobility. We characterize congestion in order to understand what the possible solutions are. Some basic tools of traffic engineering and two paradoxes (Braess and Downs-ThomsonMogridge paradoxes) were posed to demonstrate that common sense solutions do not work; particularly those policies focused exclusively into increasing road infrastructure will not resolve this problem and reinforced the idea that, in congested scenarios, the worst enemy of urban sustainability is the indiscriminate use of the private car. Then, we suggest that urban development and mobility should be treated as twisted problems in organized complexity, so they do not have satisfactory solutions. Finally, we propose a stick and carrot approach, which is the most consensual solution among specialists: the first is a policy - such as road pricing - that charges for car use in congested periods and places of the city. The carrot policy, refers to the provision of an adequate and dignified public transport system. Finally, we argue that this does not seem to be possible without the presence of a positive political leader who is willing to play longer-term strategies.