Sustainable Urban Mobility Measures in response to COVID-19: A Systematic Literature Review and Emerging Policy Challenges

Abstract

Urban mobility was strongly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with several sustainability vulnerabilities, namely environmental and social ones, becoming visible. This work analyses worldwide sustainable urban mobility measures adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, aiming to provide a comprehensive taxonomic picture of emerging policy and research issues. A systematic literature review is carried out using N-Vivo software to analyse the main addressed concepts that may leverage the sustainability and resilience of urban mobility systems, providing directions to future research agendas. Results show that most measures/policies were reactive to a public health emergency and that the paradigm of urban systems resilience in response to these measures (i.e. proactive paradigm) is one of the most addressed by the authors. Findings suggest a lack of strategic planning to achieve sustainable urban mobility in an equal and fairway as advocated by Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). On the other hand, research results show that most of the articles in the analysed period, between 2020 and 2022, providing case studies for assessing the pandemic impacts on urban mobility. The focus of the sustainability lens is still mostly tackling the environmental dimension with few studies on the social dimension. Nevertheless, some aspects of the impact of the pandemic on society have been widely addressed, such as those related to technological advances in mobility services. These are especially related to shared mobility and micro-mobility options, Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, as well as at improving the level of urban mobility management through intelligent traffic systems. Overall, the pattern of responses suggests that further policy and research efforts are required for cities to advance towards the full implementation of smart and sustainable mobility strategies.