Citation
Pagliara, F. (2024), "Sustainable mobility in a fast-changing world: from concept to action", International Journal of Tourism Cities, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 1179-1181. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJTC-09-2024-304
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited
Sustainable mobility in a fast-changing world: from concept to action is written by two leading experts in the transport economy. Dr Nancy Vandycke is the lead economic advisor in the Infrastructure Global Practice – Transport at the World Bank Group, where she manages a portfolio of award-winning knowledge creation and business development programs and partnerships and Professor José M. Viegas, Emeritus Professor of Transportation at the University of Lisbon. He is the methodological coordinator of an innovative approach for improved decision-making in transport and associated tools, developed under the Sustainable Mobility for All partnership.
The book makes a meaningful and timely contribution to the topic of Sustainable mobility in a fast-changing world by collating a wide range of literature related to transportation systems and their role in modern societies. The book is divided into two parts. Part I is made up of five chapters (from 2 to 6), whereas Part II is made up of seven chapters (from 7 to 13).
The first five chapters building Part I, entitled “The urgent need for a new approach” provide an additional and interesting contribution to the literature. Specifically, Chapter 2 deals with the key trends shaping the future of mobility. The new political ambition is introduced in a very clear way and then the new “hyper” digitalization, as the authors call it, is introduced in data and technologies. It is interesting the citation to one of the most important aspects, sometimes neglected in transport, which is the issue of equity and inclusion, fundamental for any intervention in mobility.
Chapter 3 relates to the shift from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to sustainable mobility. This chapter is very significant because it perfectly describes the objectives of sustainable mobility, setting at the core of any intervention of humankind, managing its protection. The link between transport and the SDG framework is provided and a shared definition of mobility that should be sustainable is presented to the readers.
Chapter 4 concerns the power of data and the new technologies and how they relate to transport. The authors state that the future is high-tech and data-driven and the role of this new trend in transport is reported with details as well as the importance of sharing data and partnerships.
Chapter 5 reports the real revolution in transport, i.e. public engagement. Listening to the voices of stakeholders and embedding within the whole transportation decision-making process their needs from the very beginning is a fundamental step in any democratic, transparent and inclusive administration. Citizen’s engagement avoids barriers, such as the NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome, which can only bring delays to the project.
Part I ends with Chapter 6, where the issue of fostering equity and inclusion in transport projects is better highlighted. Equity gaps are highlighted and implications for more inclusive transport and mobility are suggested.
Part II, entitled “A new approach to policy making on transport and mobility” begins with Chapter 7, where a systematic approach to transport and mobility is provided. In this chapter, the topic of resilience of transport systems is reported. Nowadays, transport networks are increasingly challenged by unexpected events, such as accidents and technical failures, internal shocks to the transportation system, or external events such as natural phenomena, including earthquakes, landslides and floods. The latter are becoming more frequent due to climate change. These events physically damage infrastructure.
Chapter 8 deals with the real additional contribution provided by this book to the literature, i.e. sustainable mobility should be for all. A new coalition in transport should be promoted; a sustainable mobility for all umbrella should be a must. In particular, the authors promote a systematic approach toward improved decision-making in transport, highlighting how it responds to four dynamics.
Chapter 9 presents the global tracking framework. The four-goal vision for sustainable mobility is first presented. Then the global tracking framework for transport is described. Interesting is the section on the global sustainable mobility composite score, which provides the decision-maker with a richer set of information on sustainable mobility, making explicit the impact of the techniques used on the values obtained. The chapter ends with a very useful country diagnostic on sustainable mobility.
Chapter 10 reports on a catalogue of policy measures toward sustainable mobility, which is a real breakthrough in sustainable mobility. Indeed, the chapter describes carefully the policy measures providing the reader with an extensive view of what should be done and promoted for a better future.
Chapter 11 presents country action plans where a detailed description of the prototype is shown to the reader as well as the way an ad hoc country action plan should be developed.
In Chapter 12, attention is paid to the case study of South Africa with respect to the rapidly evolving context. Separate sections are dedicated to the country's diagnostic on sustainable mobility as well as to the country's action plan on sustainable mobility. Mobility performances as well as the prototype action plan are reported for this case study.
Chapter 13 reports the conclusions. In this last chapter, closing thoughts are described highlighting the need for a new approach to transport decision-making processes, due to the future of travel.
I think that this book has all the ingredients necessary for becoming a reference in the international literature for planning transportation systems in a sustainable way. All the most important topics that are affecting our societies and the entire world have been faced: resilience and public engagement among them.
It has been a privilege to review this book, which will be useful to academics and professionals in the field of transport as well as to students at the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree levels, who will learn more about transportation systems planning. This book represents the most up-to-date picture of what is meant by transportation systems planning today and leaves the reader with the right order of steps to follow when dealing with important decisions related to the transport systems. I am sure that there will be future editions where authors will be faced with updating the new trends that the world will have to face.
About the author
Dr Francesca Pagliara is based at the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy. She is an Associate Professor in Transportation Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II. During her PhD course in 2000, she worked at David Simmonds Consultancy in Cambridge. In 2002, she worked at the Transport Studies Unit of the University of Oxford as a research officer; in 2006, she worked at the Institute for Transport Planning and Systems of ETH in Zurich; and in 2013, she worked at the Laboratoire des Villes Mobilité et Transports of the University of Paris-Est in France. She was a visiting professor at the Transportation Research Group of the University of Southampton (2007 and 2009); at TRANSyt of the University of Madrid (2007 and 2010, 2015); at the University of Wuhan (2011); at the Department of Economics of the University of Valencia (2012); at the Institute for Transportation of the Technical University of Munich (2013); at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Ciudad Real in Spain (2016); at the Institute of Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development of the University of Las Palmas in Spain (2018); and at the Department of Tourism Management of the School of Economics and Management of the Beijing Jiaotong University (2019). She was appointed as Adjunct Professor of the School of Economics and Management of Beijing Jiaotong University for three years since July 2019. Since 2021, she has been the promoter of the International Workshop on High-Speed Rail Socioeconomic Impacts, supported by the International Union of Railways. Since June 2022, she has been a member of the Urban Tourist Observatory (Osservatorio Turistico Urbano), providing support to the Municipality of the city of Naples (Italy) for the development of initiatives for tourists visiting the city. Her main fields of research are the wider socioeconomic impacts of transportation system investments (including high-speed rail); the impact of transportation systems on the tourism market; engagement in the transportation decision-making process; Transit-Oriented Development Policies and Integrated Land-use/Transport models. She is the author of academic books both in Italian and in English and of more than 100 papers. She coedited two books published by Springer. Her recent publication is the book published by Springer in 2023 entitled Transportation Systems for Tourism. She participated in several research projects.