Urban mobility: an overview of new transport modes

In cities, people's travel patterns have changed significantly and are still changing. New forms of urban mobility are appearing, and are impacting the world from an economic, social and environmental point of view. Let's take stock of these new forms of urban mobility.

What is urban mobility?

Urban mobility, as its name suggests, is essentially about cities, and more particularly about large metropolises. But let's define this concept of urban mobility more precisely.

Definition of urban mobility

Urban mobility refers to the movement of people within cities. It therefore focuses on a limited urban perimeter, and does not include interurban (city-to-city) or rural mobility. All modes of transport that involve moving beyond the city limits are therefore excluded from the notion of urban mobility, as is the case for trains, planes and boats.

Urban mobility then refers to the flow of travel within a single city, and includes the daily and recurrent rides of inhabitants, whether to go to work, to shop, or for leisure.

The transformation of urban mobility

In recent years, urban mobility has taken on a different face. Between the environmental commitment of leaders and citizens, the different ways of working (teleworking), and the diversification of the transportation offer, users are now turning to new means of locomotion. The advantages for city dwellers are numerous:

• Smoother network and decongestion of city centres ;
• Easier parking;
• Less pollution;
• Life simplified...

It should be noted, however, that the use of the car and traditional public transport (metro, bus, tramway...) remain in the majority.

More committed individual travel modes

Urban mobility inevitably translates into less frequent use of the personal vehicle. This indirectly contributes to a shift towards environmentally friendly and health-conscious mobility. Thus, urban mobility enthusiasts are adopting individual, but more committed modes of transport.

The electric scooter to get around town

Combining power, autonomy and ergonomics, the electric scooter is a real success in the city. It allows you to move quickly throughouturban area, without suffering from traffic jams, and with very little impact on the environment. Many cities now offer self-service electric scooters.

Hoverboards and scooters

With their look of vehicles of the future, unicycles and hoverboards seduce city dwellers. This individual means of transport is perfectly suited to use in the city, and is particularly light, autonomous and fast. Micromobility is becoming established at city centres, both for its practicality and its fun aspect.

Walking, skating, rollerblading, cycling

Soft modes of transportation have also been on the rise in recent years. Walking and cycling remain the most popular means of transportation in the city, and bike-sharing is a real success. These modes are particularly interesting for short distances.

Skateboarding and rollerblading are still marginal, but are truly committed to soft mobility.

Shared mobility for urban mobility

All mobilities are undeniably interrelated, and each has an impact on the others (both positive and negative). As far as shared mobility is concerned, it proves to be a real ally of urban mobility, as it limits the use of individual means of transport.

Carpooling and carsharing

As we have seen, car use is still very much in the majority in cities. This does not mean, however, that no steps are being taken in this respect to promote urban mobility. Carpooling and carsharing are means of shared mobility that help to reduce the use of individual cars and the congestion of urban centers.

Thus, with carpooling, the driver chooses his destination and invites other users to share his car with him for the duration of this ride. Incar-sharing, a car is made available on a free-floating or loop basis (either the car is left at the point of arrival, or it is returned to the point of departure). Car-sharing thus allows city dwellers to take advantage of a car without having to buy one.

Urban mobility: a multimodal approach

The study of people's daily movements is becoming increasingly complex. While it used to be assumed that a trip from one point to another was a single journey, it is now necessary to take into account all the steps required to make that same trip ride. The reason for this is that many factors now complicate transport, and journeys using a single means of transport, on a single route, are becoming rare. In many cases, the distance between home and work encourages people to make detours and optimize their trips. It is not uncommon then, that before going to work, one drops the children at school, stops at the drive-through to pick up groceries, goes to the bakery to buy lunch...

While many of these rides are made by car, many commuters use more than one mode of transportation for their rides. The multimodality is therefore a central element of urban mobility, and each ride from point A to point B should no longer be considered a single ride, but should take into account all the modes of travel used.

Aware of the challenges of the transformation of urban mobility, Padam Mobility contributes to the changes by offering a committed service of Demand-Responsive Transport.