In search of indicators for Sustainable Mobility Guarantee(s)

Abstract

Sustainable Mobility Guarantee (SMG) is an emerging concept in transport policymaking. On the contrary to Classical Mobility Guarantee (CMG), which primarily focuses on ensuring mobility of those who do not own a car or who are not able to drive, SMG focuses on nudging people’s mobility behavior towards low-carbon and sustainable modes of travel such as walking, cycling and public transport. Ultimately, the SMG addresses sustainable accessibility to facilities, amenities, services and opportunities without owning a car or driving. For policymaking strategic indicators for analysis, consensus building, planning and monitoring are important. For CMG, indicators stemming from service provision of public transport such as frequency are typically in use. This remains as a part of SMG indicators, but SMG calls for a wider range of indicators, in particular spatial accessibility indicators to describe accessibility to everyday destinations. There are some proposed indicators for it, but they all have their shortcomings that stem from the origins of the indicators. A comprehensive one is proposed in academic literature, but it is “data-hungry” and not easy to handle. Nevertheless, this would be a potential base for further development. Indicators about quality and usability of public transport would also gain more importance.