Better urban mobility playbook

National and urban policy makers must now face the consequences of more than 70 years of urban development around unsustainable, private and individual mobility: Urban sprawl, traffic congestion, air and noise pollution, road accidents, social segregation and much more. Despite awareness of the challenges facing the world today and the growing urgency to tackle the climate crisis, these problems are only getting worse.

Cities are the epicentre for innovation, economic growth and social wellbeing. Successful cities are those with high interactions, where people have an easy access to basic services, jobs, schools, leisure activities and businesses. Moving towards sustainable cities is a huge collective effort that can only be achieved with strong political leadership and courage.

This playbook is an update of the UITP report “Better Mobility in Urban Areas”, published 20 years ago. It highlights the various challenges cities are facing and offers solutions with concrete steps that can be applied to redeveloping more sustainable liveable, healthy and inclusive cities.

Looking back over the last two decades, many positive changes have occurred. Investments in public transport systems have been massive: Since 2000, 86 new metros have opened and around 150 bus rapid transit systems worldwide, pedestrians and cyclists are taking back the streets, mobility governing bodies such as transport authorities are being created to implement the right mechanisms to plan, support and manage the mobility system, and many cities are now integrating land-use and mobility planning.

But changes are not happening fast enough to achieve international climate agreements. We believe this playbook will be a useful tool to support cities in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals with clear guidance on better urban mobility.

Download the Better Urban Mobility Playbook