Making sense of sustainable mobility – compact cities, sedate households or clean vehicles?

Adriaan Perrels, Government Institute for Economic Research VATT

Keywords

Consumption modelling, Eco-efficiency, Hybrid models, Lifestyles, Mobility, Travel time, Urbanisation

Abstract

This article addresses the interaction effects between consumers and the characteristics of their living environment, with special reference to mobility, transport performance and transport emissions. In transportation research the issue of interactions between urban characteristics, residential preferences, and mobility patterns is receiving increasing attention. The assessment of mobility effects discussed here is carried out as part of a larger study in Finland (KulMaKunta), which addresses sustainable consumption in its entirety. The notion of the 'means of consumption' is important in this respect. This notion or assertion, having its origins in sociology, wants to underline that in a modern western society commercial success has become more dependent on organisation of sales and consumption than on production as such. In other words, how quickly can one reach as many customers as possible. When trying to operationalise the notion 'means of consumption' in (transport-) economic terms it implies that exposure to consumption opportunities and accessibility become key features. This article argues that one of the consequences of these typical urban conditions is a high passenger mobility per capita of urban dwellers. In turn this complicates the realisation of the – potentially – high eco-efficiency of a city.