Analysis of the Effects of Urban Mobility Concepts on the Socio-Technical Transformation Process in Major Cities: A Qualitative Study of Transforming European Cities

The mobility sector is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, but with appropriate measures, it offers a high potential for emission savings, especially in urban areas. A high level of particulate matter pollution as well as risks for pedestrians and cyclists are additional reasons that already lead certain European cities to implement car-reduced city centres and neighbourhoods. The strategic orientation of the deployed municipal concepts is determined by the socio-technical regime dominating the respective city as well as by overriding trends and local innovations. Under these framework conditions for the concept, planners try to combine different environmental policy instruments to achieve the most desired effects, not only to directly achieve municipal, national and international objectives but also to accelerate the socio-technical transformation process. The aim of this work is to evaluate the effects of environmental policy instruments and concepts on the socio-technical transformation process in the context of a multi-level perspective. The qualitative analysis of this research is based on a literature review and case studies of major European cities with planning papers, municipal resolutions and other documents, as well as expert interviews with planning and management stakeholders. The research highlights and assesses the role of urban mobility strategies, administrative structures and environmental policy instruments in the transformation process. It is shown that the mobility transition requires a continuous implementation of incremental measures as well as a system opening for the diffusion of more radical concepts. To accelerate processes, both key actors and stakeholder networks are crucial to create acceptance and willingness for change. In addition to vertical influences in the multi-level model, horizontal relationships between neighbouring regimes could be identified and elements that weak the path dependencies and make the structures more open to innovation could be shown and integrated into the model.