Fair-Sustainable Mobility and Indicators of Equity in Transport

Over time, an idea of mobility and urban planning has developed, often aimed at a minority of people, usually car owners. Transportation planning has thus directed investments towards road infrastructures for motor vehicles, vehicles with high energy consumption and high environmental impact, leaving out a large rate of the population who, by choice or limitations, neither owns nor drives a car. This component of the population is forced to suffer the consequences of these policies in several ways: directly, since it suffers the disadvantage of not being able to benefit from infrastructures suited to its needs, such as pedestrian or cycle paths or adequate public transport; indirect, since it suffers the tax burdens that will finance unwanted works and, at the same time, the damage resulting from heavy externalities (pollution, congestion, barrier effect). Many national and EU regulations have highlighted the limits of car-centric urban planning. The evolutionary characteristics of the European population, in particular the growth of the elderly component and the weakest groups, accentuate mobility problems and social inequalities, pushing to conceive new development models also in the field of transport. The paper proposes a new vision of transport planning based on equity and sustainability criteria and, consequently, a panel of indicators to monitor the impacts of the strategies deriving from it.