Urban Mobility: Exploring Sustainable Transportation
When you live in a big city, you know that using a car is often the least practical mode of transportation. It is also one of the least eco-friendly options you have when it comes to moving around in this environment. To avoid traffic build-up, governments, and city councils all over the world have implemented different ways of urban mobility to get around in a quick, and efficient way!
3 Keypoints of the Article
- Urban mobility encompasses all ways of moving around a city, considering the sustainability of transport methods and their impact on urban environments.
- Sustainable urban mobility aims to decrease the carbon footprint, alleviate congestion, and improve air quality by promoting eco-friendly transportation.
- Cities are increasingly adopting measures like “Green” zones and encouraging non-motorized or public transport, with innovations like electric scooters from companies like Äike becoming popular solutions.
What Do We Mean by Urban Mobility?
When we are talking about the term urban mobility, we are talking about all the possible ways of moving around in a city. But the term also includes the way that a city is adapted to these ways of transport and movement, and the urban impact these modes of transport have on that location.
What Is Part of Urban Mobility
Urban transportation is more than just the cars and buses that you see in cities. It includes all the different types of transportation that you can take to go from point A to point B. Some Urban Mobility examples are:
Non-motorized
In a city, there are multiple ways to move around with transportation methods that are not motorized. For example, walking is one of the most eco-friendly ways of getting around. However, it is not the most time-efficient way. But things such as bicycles, skateboards, and scooters also belong to the category of non-motorized modes of transport. By using these, you can get to your destination in less time and still be eco-friendly.
Motorized Modes of Transport
When we are talking about motorized modes of transport within urban environments, we include cars, taxis, motorcycles, and everything else with an engine that can only take small amounts of people. This class of urban mobility is by far the most polluting and non-ecofriendly class of moving around! They’re also the most expensive and often the least convenient way to get around.
Public Transportation
In big cities, most of the people who live there rely on the use of public transportation to get around. Even though these modes of transportation often use fuel-powered engines, they’re still better for the environment than the previous examples. This is why municipalities often encourage people to leave their cars at home and use public transportation instead. The only real disadvantage of public transportation is the fact that during rush hour, it is nearly impossible to get a comfortable experience.
Infrastructure
We have explained the most obvious parts of urban mobility, but there is a category that you might not think about: the infrastructure of everything. Urban mobility also consists of the adaptation of cities to these different modes of transport and how it affects the infrastructure of a city that is already built.
Why Is Urban Mobility So Important?
Simply put, urban mobility just means ways of getting from one point to the other in a bigger city. However, there is more to it than meets the eye! Urban mobility also considers the sustainability of cities and how it can be improved. There are plenty of issues when it comes to urban mobility. To show this, we have included some of these urban mobility issues examples:
Sustainability of a City
Big cities can have up to 1.5 million residents who live there – this excludes all the people that come into the city for work during the week. This number of people creates an enormous carbon footprint of the city, with urban mobility being one of its biggest contributors. This is why governments and city councils are constantly searching for the next option to reduce the carbon footprint and increase sustainability.
Congestion in City Centers
During peak traffic hours, using a car can get you stuck in the city for more than an hour. This is where different options for urban mobility comes into play. By implementing different ways to get around in a city, such as public transportation or making bicycle paths, this congestion can be reduced to a minimum. Making moving around in the city a lot easier for everyone.
Air Quality for Residents
The combination of the high number of cars during rush hour traffic and there being no way for the exhaust fumes to escape the city, can seriously reduce the quality of the breathable air within these cities. As a result of the bad air quality, people living in these cities have a high risk of getting sick from living in an air-polluted area!
What Part Does Urban Mobility Play in Sustainable Cities?
Urban Mobility is still one of the biggest contributors to the carbon footprint of a city. With all the new regulations coming from governments, cities have to find a way to decrease their carbon footprint without creating problems for their residents or the people who work in these cities!
Cities that want to become more sustainable also have to make sure that they have sustainable urban mobility. To achieve this, they have to figure out ways to improve their transportation network to make sure that the most eco-friendly ways of transportation can actually be used.
What Is the Future of Urban Mobility?
Since more and more cities are trying to reduce the size of their carbon footprint, and the urban impact of different modes of transportation, they’re changing the future of urban transportation. In some cities, it is already noticeable:
Discouraging the Use of Cars
Many cities are making adjustments to their transportation network and infrastructure to make transportation within a city more efficient. This is often done by creating “bus only”-lanes so that buses can avoid traffic, or by creating bicycle paths that have priority over the normal flow of traffic. This will encourage more people to use public transportation or non-motorized modes of transportation in big cities!
Eventually, it will result in fewer cars being in cities during rush hours, which will also keep the air from getting as polluted as before!
“Green” Zones
Numerous big cities in Europe are implementing green zones that prohibit the use of non-ecofriendly modes of transport. All cars will be divided into different categories, and only cars from the most eco-friendly categories can enter these green zones. In some countries, this means only electric vehicles are allowed in the city center. In other countries, cars are completely banned from inner cities, forcing people to use public transport or eco-friendly ways to get around, like bicycles or electric scooters.
Time for Adjustments
Not everyone can immediately change to an eco-friendly way of urban transportation. This is why cities have to implement these changes over longer periods of time. They also have to make sure that everyone gets the information about these changes, so people can prepare themselves.
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint With an Electric Scooter!
Are you looking for a way to reduce your carbon footprint while making use of Urban transportation? You don’t have enough space to store a bicycle? No problem, we have the solution: Electric Scooters! Electric scooters are getting more popular as a use of urban mobility in big cities. There are multiple advantages of using an electric scooter, such as improving urban mobility and reducing the urban impact of the users. That is why we have developed the smartest and high quality electric scooter in the world at Äike.
With eyes on sustainability, we were able to make durable e-scooters out of recycled materials. Don’t want to actually buy a scooter? We got you covered! At Äike, you can also rent an electric scooter on a subscription base. So whenever you have no use for it any more you can send it back and end the subscription!
