A sustainable mobility system depends on how effectively governments, transport providers, and travelers work together. This requires aligning goals, managing uncertainty, and ensuring participation. From reducing emissions to introducing innovative alternatives to car use, stronger coordination and mutual understanding among stakeholders are essential for successful mobility transitions. That’s a key finding from On The Move, a research initiative by Radboud University and Delft University of Technology.
"When policy makers try to formulate an ambition on mobility, they often formulate very broad goals like a focus on ’responsible and sustainable mobility’," explains Vincent Marchau, professor at Radboud University. "But if you have a lot of parties involved, they might all’have a different vision on how to actually accomplish that. In our project, we focused on making that vision operational. In a case on neighbourhood transition, for example, we talked through all the relevant details from the number of shared cars to parking norms for each neighborhood involved."
"Only if you discuss these issues with all parties involved, differences do emerge, but you can bring everyone together on a vision that’s specific, measurable, and robust against developments in mobility in the future", adds Peraphan Jittrapirom, assistant professor at Radboud University and also involved in On The Move.
Rob van der Heijden, professor at Radboud University and project leader, emphasizes two overarching conclusions. "First, to get all policymaking parties involved and collaborative, we need a special supportive methodological toolkit and training of these parties. Secondly, there is a need for new institutional designs that create better conditions for decision makers to understand and manage (deep) uncertainty related to transport innovation. The traditional approach that treats uncertainty as risk to be minimized can hamper opportunities for these innovations to scale up and become attractive, sustainable transport options."
Reducing friction
As part of the project, the researchers also explored what led people to embrace innovations such as ’Mobility as a Service (MaaS)’ (using digital platforms to access shared cars and bikes, public transport, and other forms of mobility). They found that having the latest features may not be the most important to users, but that social norms and policy measures increase adoption much more significantly.
Marchau: "Adding car-free zones to new neighborhoods made it much more socially acceptable for people in that neighborhood to look at MaaS options, for example. And for business travelers, we found that integrating shared mobility systems with smooth employer reimbursement dramatically lowered the barrier. Not having to fill out extra forms, but receiving the money back automatically, made people far more likely to use it."
Feedback: more than a checkbox
As part of mobility policy, governments often ask citizens to get involved and provide their feedback on new plans. Yet the researchers found that this was too frequently seen as little more than a checkbox. Gerdien de Vries, one of the professors of the project at the Delft University of Technology: "There were big inconsistencies between participation methods, objectives, and outcomes. People share their opinions, but it’s unclear what happens to that feedback. Participation needs to be more than symbolic."
To successfully implement the lessons learned from their project, the researchers encourage policymakers to focus on sustainable mobility as a systemic problem: not just more roads and public transport, but integrating it into discussions on housing, energy, and social support. "These lessons point to concrete actions: train professionals in adaptive planning, design governance structures that reward collaboration, and involve citizens in ways that can actually influence outcomes," concludes Peraphan. "If we do that, sustainable mobility becomes achievable: not as a distant ideal, but as a shared, evolving reality."
On The Move was headed by researchers at Radboud University and Delft University of Technology. It was funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, ProRail, the Province of Gelderland and the municipality of The Hague. A more extensive summary of