OPINIONS

Reduce carbon-emitting travel: a factor of social cohesion and ecological necessity

Mobile Lives Forum

19/10/2021

As part of the Mission on the future of the economic model of public transport, commissioned by the Minister of Transport and led by Philippe Duron in 2021, the Mobile Lives Forum presented its analysis of the current mobility system and its three-pronged approach to effectively make transport in France carbon-free: integrating mobility into a global system, developing efficient intermodality, and keeping journeys closer to home.

Thematics : Lifestyles, Policies

OPINIONS

Strasbourg, an example of a cycling city

Frédéric Héran

27/09/2021

Strasbourg is the leading bicycle city in France and a constant source of inspiration for all French cities that want to promote cycling. With a modal share of 11% for the Metropolis and 15% in the city centre, it remains however somewhat below Europe’s leading cycling cities, but still ahead of Bordeaux or Grenoble, two cities which are progressing rapidly. How has the Strasbourg bicycle system developed? And can it serve as a model for other French cities?

Thematics : Lifestyles, Policies, Theories

OPINIONS

Twelve discourses of climate delay in the transport sector

Giulio Mattioli

25/01/2021

Perhaps one of the few good news of the 2020s is that climate denial is on its way out. In most of Europe, it has become hard to find public figures or organisations that outright deny the reality of human-made climate change. The bad news is that a more subtle, but no less insidious discourse has taken its place. One where the speaker acknowledges (or pays lip service to) climate change, but then quickly moves on to explaining why we should not do this and that to tackle it. Often, the goal is…

OPINIONS

Travelling less to travel better!

Mobile Lives Forum

02/11/2020

Before the Covid crisis, the more we travelled, the better: mobility was not only supposed to enable daily activities, but also to facilitate access to employment and even success in life. The lockdown undermined this unbridled mobility and now, we’re at a tipping point: after experiencing forced immobility, will we go back to the highly mobile lifestyles we had before the crisis? Can we still say that we have to “move to succeed”?

Thematics : Lifestyles, Policies

OPINIONS

Covid-19: Are we heading for a ‘new normal’ and does it matter?

Greg Marsden

15/07/2020

The restrictions in mobility that have accompanied the lockdown and subsequent staged release of lockdown in response to Covid-19 have created the conditions for some quite radical natural experiments in social adaptation. In this article I reflect on what we can learn about the importance of collective social norms in making more transformative social change work. I argue that whilst there is both great potential in some of the adaptations to set us on a more climate compliant pathway, there…

Thematics : Lifestyles, Policies, Theories

OPINIONS

French 2020 municipal elections: why the pedestrianization of city centers isn’t enough

Mobile Lives Forum

06/07/2020

As Green parties recorded historic results in the second round of the French municipal elections in June, walking will be an important topic in the coming months for many French communities whose newly elected officials campaigned on this issue. In this context, the Mobile Lives Forum warns us against seeing the pedestrianization of city centers as the only or even correct way of promoting walking as a mode of travel in its own right. We have to think of largescale, uninterrupted pedestrian…

Thematics : Lifestyles, Policies