Economic impacts of sustainable mobility in smart cities: international evaluation approaches

Evaluation approaches consider sustainable transport and smart cities as crucial for a higher quality of life in several international urban areas. First, a greater awareness of all travelers about the impact of their mobility choices is an essential element towards the new culture of urban mobility. Second, in order to promote fair behaviors of road users, the availability of efficient collective transport services and routes and of cycle and pedestrian paths are very important. New concepts in mobility and transport services, as well as emerging technologies and digital-enabled solutions, have created transformations in the domains of transport systems. In the light of new exigencies, decision-makers should support sustainable mobility-related measures to meet people’s expectations. In the long term, mobility patterns can change if there is a change in urban locations and in land-use patterns. An effort is required to include these aspects in urban development planning. The planning should aim at maximising the urban transport system efficiency by considering the environmental and the city resource constraints. Sustainable transportation systems require a dynamic balance between all the components of sustainable development that is environmental protection, social equity, and economic efficiency for current and future generations. Therefore, this paper focuses on low-carbon and smart mobility and how these new mobility patterns and technologies may facilitate transitions from the current unsustainable situation to a smart urban context. For these purposes, ad hoc indicators are suggested and they are discussed in this paper.