Opinion

At the end of the summer, a new academic year begins and with it mobility in cities reaches its peak. The cause of this is the so-called obligatory trips, understood as daily commuting for work and study purposes, which are a fundamental part of urban mobility as a whole and which during the summer months are - obviously - attenuated by the vacations.

According to the most recent surveys carried out in several Spanish cities, this type of travel accounts for between 40% and 50% of all urban trips. Due to its characteristics, occupational mobility is largely resolved through the use of the automobile (in particular work movements) and, moreover, with very low levels of occupancy in each vehicle. As a result, the return to work and the start of school activity entail an evident increase in traffic in cities. And with it comes an increase in air pollution, noise, congestion, commuting-related accidents at work (more than 75,000 a year in Spain) and many other undesirable effects caused by current urban mobility based on the massive use of cars.

These effects of heavy traffic in cities pose a risk to people's health, but also to the health of the planet itself, which is heavily influenced by what happens in urban environments. It is no coincidence that cities are home to more than half of the world's population and - according to the International Energy Agency - consume up to three quarters of the energy used by humans and produce 70% of the CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere. In this regard, it is worth recalling the words of the former secretary general of the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, Maurice F. Strong: "The battle for sustainability will be won or lost in the cities", which seems increasingly evident, given the growing rate of concentration of population and economic activities in urban areas around the world.

To that well-known phrase he added a tagline that allows us to focus attention on the subject of this article: "it is the management of urban mobility that will determine who will win that battle". Urban mobility is therefore not just another aspect of the urban environment, with a purely local scope. On the contrary, it is an absolutely central issue in the field of global sustainability, as evidenced by the fact that transport is - by far - the sector with the highest energy consumption on a national (44.9 %) and also urban scale, far above industry, domestic consumption, etc. Considering that mobility is still overwhelmingly linked to the use of petroleum derivatives, the consequences in terms of air pollution are obvious.

In this way, giving urban mobility the importance it deserves and returning to the occupational trips with which we began, the fact that these are concentrated in time (on certain days of the week and at certain specific times) and space (with destinations in large centers that attract trips such as hospitals, universities, industrial parks, etc.) makes it possible to find good mobility solutions. Or at least simpler than when we want to act on trips for personal reasons (leisure, shopping, errands, etc.), generally more dispersed in space and more sporadic in nature.

This is therefore a great opportunity for administrations and public transport managers to focus their policies on this type of mobility, which, due to its characteristics, lends itself very well to the implementation of alternative solutions to the use of the private car. The implementation of sustainable mobility plans on an urban scale and, particularly, of mobility-to-work plans (those focused on a company or institution or a group of them) are an excellent way to raise awareness and identify concrete actions to change mobility in cities.

The beginning of the school year, coinciding with the celebration of European Mobility Week (September 16-22, 2022), is a good time to rethink our daily mobility to the workplace or place of study. Even if cities act in favor of the development of public transport and non-motorized means, the ultimate decision on how we move is up to each individual, depending on his or her circumstances and possibilities. Sometimes there are no reasonable alternatives to car use, but in most cases it is a matter of considering a small change in habits from which we will all benefit. It may seem a lot of effort for a negligible result in the whole of a big city, but someone has to start... And it can be us.