Developing the use of active transportation modes inside cities: Identification and compilation of fundamental indicators
Abolfazl Dehghanmongabadi
1
(Faculty of Architectural Engineering and Urbanism, Shahrood University of Technology (SUT), Shahrood, Iran;)
Keywords: Sustainable transportation, active modes of transport, fundamental indicators, Meta-Synthesis Method,
Abstract :
The concept of sustainable development has emerged in the transportation sector as a key approach to providing a serious balance between social fairness, economic development, and environmental protection. In recent years, the concept of sustainable transportation has become a leading research topic around the world. The application of sustainability actions in the transportation sector would help ameliorate its issues. Unfortunately, the current urban transportation systems have raised serious concerns and posed a widespread threat to urban sustainability, social justice, economic life, and environmental survival. Hence, the transportation sector needs fundamental changes in policy, planning, and design of its systems around the world to be able to develop the concept of sustainability in this sector. Over the past four decades, using active and sustainable transportation modes has been encouraged and this approach is defined as one of the major sustainability movements that have taken place in many countries and is titled as Active Transportation Movement. Approving the use of active modes of transportation has emerged as one of the particular movements focused on encouraging travel related to walking, cycling, and the use of public transportation systems. Accordingly, this paper provides a narrative literature review to clarify the main indicators related to the social and built environment aspects that must be considered by planners and policymakers in the way of promoting the use of active modes of transportation inside urban societies. Therefore, in this research, the meta-analysis method was used to systematically analyze 75 research published by journals indexed in the SCI and SSCI categories in the Web of Science (WOS). Besides, selected articles have been published from 2018 to 2023. Finally, fundamental indicators have been presented in four Physical, Social-Cultural, Intelligentization, Education and Policymaking categories. The effects of indicators related to the built environment are more quantitative and measurable than indicators related to the social-cultural aspect. This study highlights that attention to social-cultural characteristics is of utmost importance in the process of promoting the use of active modes of transportation. Regardless of the challenges, indicators related to the social aspect can give policy-makers very comprehensive knowledge of the social characteristics of communities where a project is to be applied. The infrastructures related to intelligentization, play an undeniable role in the future of sustainable transportation around the world. Raising the level of citizens' awareness of the benefits of using active transportation systems and its direct effects on the health of the body, mind, spirit and the environment is one of the necessary solutions that must be implemented at different levels of society throughout various educational methods. Furthermore, the use of correct policies that can be adopted positively and negatively complements all efforts in the direction of developing the use of active transportation systems among citizens. In the end, this investigation highlights that in the decision-making process for any project which is meant to encourage people to use active modes of transportation, consideration of indicators and paying attention to current and expected transportation requirements are very important to reach an ideal future.