Welcome to the first module of this online course about urban mobility! Currently, the majority of Earth’s population lives in cities, and in some continents, such as Europe, the number of residents in urban areas reaches up to 75%, though, it’s important to consider that a city as an administrative unit may be defined differently in different counties.

Around 57% of Armenia’s population lives in the 49 cities of our country. Although it’s difficult to compare Yerevan with a population over 1 million, to Dastakert with 300 inhabitants, still, activities like jobs, education, trade, social life, childcare and others are generally concentrated in cities themselves.

Getting around the city is necessary to get us where we are going. However, urban mobility presents us, our communities, and decision-making state and community structures with difficult choices. Many solutions related to urban mobility require long-term implementation, moreover, their implementation is practically impossible without prior or ongoing serious discussions. This short learning module will introduce you to the main problems, ideas and solutions of modern urban mobility settings. This first part will help identify how urban mobility solutions affect urban life. It examines the contrast between different modes of transport in the context of urban mobility, for example how much precious space different modes of transport take up in a city.

How can one briefly define mobility, and particularly, urban mobility? One of the simplest definitions is the following: Urban mobility is the unity of methods and systems of all the movements of humans and goods in any given city. In essence, this is one of the foundational characteristics of social and economic life in cities, that includes various technologies and urban, economic subjects unified through those.

Humans desire to have comfortable residential spaces. They need such environments that are convenient to live in, and services are accessible and close. The decisions made by governments in the name of city dwellers necessarily impact the quality of the city itself. Let’s together understand how the infrastructures of our cities, and our adopted policies shape our everyday life. So, urban mobility is a unity of managing the movements of humans, goods and information in any given city, custom to the unique developmental goals of said city. In the same context, sustainable urban mobility implies cities’ shift from traditional regimes where private vehicles dominate – to a new regime, that includes a wider usage and reliance on public transport, ecologically clean vehicles such as electric buses, as well as the spread of bicycles or scooters as private vehicles.

Mobility is the foundation of fair access to such social values as work, education, medical institutions, shopping and trade centers, entertainment and sports venues, etc.

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, urban mobility is multifaceted and extensive, incorporating methods such as:

Public Transportation: This group includes daily transportation motorized means that move the city’s residents around – allowing them to get from one point to another. Known examples are the rapid transit (metro), buses, trolleybuses, trams and taxis, which can be considered a part of the second point as well.

Private transportation: The development of modern technology, and the emergence of various software applications has created some sort of point of intersection between public and private transportation, particularly from the perspective of taxis. Applications like GG, Uber or YandexGO and others allow ordinary residents use their vehicles, for a start the passenger cars, to provide taxi services to other members of the society. Overall, bicycles, motorcycles and according to some experts, even roller skates are considered to be a part of this transportation group.

Cargo transportation: Vehicles of this group that operate in urban conditions include those with various ownership status that are involved in the delivery of raw materials and finished goods. Based on carrying capacity, the vehicles in this group are usually divided into three types – light cargo, medium cargo and heavy cargo machines.

And finally, a very recently emerged method of transportation:

Shared transportation: The term “shared mobility” adopted in international terminology has developed quite recently and is based on the opportunity of shared use of cars, motorcycles, bicycles, scooters – without the right of ownership. Vehicles in this transportation group become available to users for a short period of time in times and places where their need is felt.

But mobility is more than just the transportation methods accessible to the urban dwellers. Modern norms and approaches of urbanism require that the obstacles between people and urban environments are reduced as much as possible – creating accessible areas and making the urge to expand transportation infrastructure and its capacity simply infinitely to a secondary plan. Optimizing the density and the distribution of urban population, ensuring the well-planned zoning of urban areas – it’s possible to make cities more comfortable for their residents. In this case, having better access to goods and services is an important amenity while living in an urban environment, and it also can promote investments and create new opportunities.

Compact, well designed cities, therefore, can become cleaner and have less harmful impact on the environment, become more attractive as exemplary cities. The notion of Sustainable Mobility is given to this long-term positive impact.

Beyond ensuring the right of every city resident to equitable mobility, Sustainable Mobility also implies a broader impact, particularly the reduction in the number of road traffic accidents, especially for vulnerable road users. These are individuals who typically lack adequate external protection and therefore face greater risks and dangers in any collision with other vehicles.

Accordingly, road users are commonly divided into the following groups based on their vulnerability:

This formal categorization forms the basis of the main methodologies for assessing road safety levels. However, from the perspective of Sustainable Mobility and depending on the scope of a given study or project, other classifications are also used. These classifications may separately mention children under the age of 7, school-age children, people with mobility impairments, those unable to move independently, road construction workers, and so on.

By also addressing the safety components of mobility, the concept of Sustainable Mobility ultimately contributes to significant improvements in health and economic sectors, an example being the insurance system.