Social Justice and the City

New urban models for more sustainable, liveable and healthier cities post covid19; reducing air pollution, noise and heat island effects and increasing green space and physical activity.

The concept of sustainable mobility has had a relatively short life, first being used about 30 years ago. In that time, some progress has been made, but transport is still not contributing enough to the internationally set reduction targets for carbon emissions. This paper provides a conceptual review that presents nine narratives addressing elements of sustainable mobility, each of which has been derived from a review of the agents and strategies taken over the last 30 years. From these narratives, we develop three Grand Narratives that bring together the key elements identified from the wider set of narratives—low mobility societies, collective transport 2.0, and electromobility. We then assess each of the three Grand Narratives in terms of its feasibility, acceptability, centrality, and compatibility. We conclude that each of the Grand Narratives provides a necessary but insufficient condition for achieving sustainable mobility. Thus, although each one has the potential to make significant contribution to sustainable mobility, it is only through the strong and immediate application of all three that the goal of sustainable mobility can be achieved.

Grand Narratives for sustainable mobility: A conceptual review

The world's population is estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050 and 75% of this population will live in cities. Two-third of the European population already live in urban areas and this proportion continues to grow. Between 60% and 80% of the global energy use is consumed by urban areas, with 70% of the greenhouse gas emissions produced within urban areas. The World Health Organization states that city planning is now recognized as a critical part of a comprehensive solution to tackle adverse health outcomes. In the present review, we address non-communicable diseases with a focus on cardiovascular disease and the urbanization process in relation to environmental risk exposures including noise, air pollution, temperature, and outdoor light. The present review reports why heat islands develop in urban areas, and how greening of cities can improve public health, and address climate concerns, sustainability, and liveability. In addition, we discuss urban planning, transport interventions, and novel technologies to assess external environmental exposures, e.g. using digital technologies, to promote heart healthy cities in the future. Lastly, we highlight new paradigms of integrative thinking such as the exposome and planetary health, challenging the one-exposure-one-health-outcome association and expand our understanding of the totality of human environmental exposures.

/pdf/heart-healthy-cities-genetics-loads-the-gun-but-the-3zwyoagq2r.pdf

Heart healthy cities: genetics loads the gun but the environment pulls the trigger.

The introduction of High-Speed Railways (HSRs) redefines the connections between main territorial hubs, by reducing the travel times and guaranteeing better accessibility. Such infrastructures bring advantages in terms of travel performances, but have also some drawbacks especially for those, generally, mid-size cities that are downgraded. This paper introduces the Spatial and Social Equity Railway Indexes (SpREi and SoREI) to assess the variation in travel times, number of connections, prices and population affected by these changes. Such indexes are then applied in the north-western part of Italy (between the regions of Piedmont and Liguria) to analyse the performances of Alessandria and Asti, two cities that were part of the previous main line Turin-Rome, but have been downgraded to a secondary line after the opening of the new HSR. Their SpREI and SoREI reveal that, despite a slight reduction of travel times, the number of direct connections has decreased with a significant increase in ticket prices. Such performances are then compared to Turin and Genoa, the two main territorial hubs, revealing contradictory results: on the one hand, Turin has registered a performance boost in terms of accessibility and variations in ticket prices. On the other hand, Genoa has seen a low increase in fares and in the number of available connections, whereas average travel times have even increased, thus confirming that the introduction of HSRs may generate inequalities in the territorial connections and hence possible need of compensation by policy makers.

Spatial and social equity implications for High-Speed Railway lines in Northern Italy

In this chapter, we recommend that the development of equity indicators should account for three components: (i) the benefits and burdens of interest, (ii) the population groups over which they are distributed; and (iii) a clear conception of what a “morally proper distribution” of benefit or burden should be. We present a simple framework of how to move from a general conceptualization of a benefit or burden to a more precise definition of suitable individual variables that can be subjected to an equity analysis. The assessment of equity also hinges on the identification of different population groups, along multiple dimensions that can represent advantage or disadvantage: income, gender, age, ethnicity, ability, and residential location. We end the chapter with an overview of the linchpin of an equity indicator: an explicit normative standard specifying what is desirable and what is not. Taken together, these three components are the ingredients of the equity indicators presented in the remaining chapters of this book.

Measuring transport equity: Key components, framings and metrics

Cities across the world are beginning to shift away from private cars and towards more sustainable, healthy, just and inclusive mobilities. Hamburg, Oslo and Madrid have recently announced their plans to become (partly) car free. Despite the accepted importance of moving towards such transport systems, many cities struggle with the transition towards becoming car free. We describe the rationale, prerequisites, barriers, facilitators and strategies for car free cities. We describe 9 prerequisites to facilitate the transition towards becoming car free. Compact cities may be easier to refit to car free cities than sprawled cities. The main challenges will be how to change existing infrastructure that was mainly designed for cars to infrastructure for active and public transport, and how to change people’s perceptions, attitudes and behaviors. Retail interest and the car industry may be some of the biggest barriers. More research on cities in the vanguard of becoming car free is needed to urge this transition. Some cities have initiated strategies to create car free spaces. There is a need for creating good and feasible strategies and scenarios, and research evidence which can facilitate the move towards healthier cities.

Implementing Car-Free Cities: Rationale, Requirements, Barriers and Facilitators

The combined decentralisation of many firms and services and the increasing concentration of traditional public transport services in the main corridors of urban centres have made it more difficult...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00420980211012635

Does better job accessibility help people gain employment? The role of public transport in Great Britain:

Background Many cities across the world are beginning to shift their mobility solutions away from private cars and towards more sustainable, healthy, just and inclusive means. Hamburg, Oslo, Helsinki and Madrid have recently announced their plans to become (partly) car free. Despite the widely accepted importance of moving towards mobility systems that enhance the livability of our urban environments, many cities struggle with the transition towards becoming car free. A recent paper described the potential (beneficial) health impacts of car free cities, but did not discuss the implementation. Aims: We aimed to describe rationale, prerequisites, barriers and potential strategies for creating car free cities. Methods We reviewed the grey and scientific literature on plans for private car free cities, restricted car use, and strategies, requisites, barriers and facilitators. Results We found relatively little on the creation of car free cities in internet searches and almost nothing in the academic literature. Some newspaper and internet articles have been written around the theme of car free cities but they do not go into great depth. When there is literature, this is focused on creating car free zones within cities, including pedestrian areas. The prerequisites we identified were political leadership, intensive data collection, a paradigm shift from mobility to accessibility, strong citizen and business support, development of a detailed plan that is aligned with other strategies in the city, and a good media strategy. Compact cities may be easier to refit to car free cities than sprawled cities. Some of the main challenges will be how to change infrastructure that was mainly designed for cars to infrastructure fit for active and public transportation, and how to change people´s perceptions, attitudes and behaviours . Furthermore, retail interest and the car industry may be some of the biggest barriers. There is a need for more research before the successful implementation of car free cities. Conclusions There are moves towards freeing cities of cars. There is a need for creating good and feasible strategies and scenarios, and further research evidence which can facilitate the move towards more sustainable, healthier and inclusive cities.

Creating Car Free Cities: Rational, Requirements, Facilitators and Barriers

https://www.cvs-congres.nl/cvspdfdocs_2014/cvs14_005.pdf

Jeroen Bastiaanssen

Papers

Measuring transport equity: Key components, framings and metrics

Implementing Car-Free Cities: Rationale, Requirements, Barriers and Facilitators

Does better job accessibility help people gain employment? The role of public transport in Great Britain:

Creating Car Free Cities: Rational, Requirements, Facilitators and Barriers

Een index om het risico op bereikbaarheidsarmoede te meten