IN MOBILITY

The priority given by the EU to Sustainable Urban Mobility has many consequences. One of these is its unequal impact on disadvantaged citizens; which is made worse by the pressure of the Ukraine war on public finances.
Key challenges for public authorities include:
* unemployed persons/low-income families whose social life is affected by the lack of financial ability to use any means of public transport.
* the inability of people to afford having a car or paying for a taxi, or uber, or other forms of micro-mobility can lead to further social exclusion.
* social exclusion of children who cannot attend school or social activities and events (sport activities, school trips, classmates’ parties, social meetings).
* low-income people who use their bike as the main mean of transport and their financial inability to repair the bike sets obstacles to daily life functions such as going to work or participate in social activities.
Therefore, how to mitigate the unintended consequences of sustainable urban mobility systems and so reduce “mobility poverty” and ensure that all citizens have access to essential services?
The overall objective is to create a “virtuous circle” of accessible and affordable mobility for all, thus ensuring that the transition towards sustainable urban mobility happens in a fair way, leaving no-one behind.
The IN MOBILITY consortium comprises 4 regions and 5 cities from all 5 IE zones, supported by an Advisory Partner.
Via the interregional learning process partners will focus on: 1) Transport Availability, 2) Transport Affordability&Conditions 3)Social Exclusion and 4) Public Acceptance.
They will improve their policy instruments via a) new calls for projects on transport poverty, b) full integration of socio-economic and just transition measures/criteria of their strategies c) policy revision making the “transition process” from a system based on facilitating traffic to a system of explicitly choosing for policy goals and citizens' needs.