Conceptual models for linking Drivers, Limits and Mobility

Driven by factors such as urban development, lifestyle changes, and growth in long distance travel transport has been the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. At the same time increase in transport demand generates congestion in urban areas posing challenges to maintaining attributes of mobility that are desirable for labor market productivity and society in general.

Several international studies as well as practical experience suggest that solutions based on technical system improvements and infrastructure expansion may not be sufficiently effective or expedient to fully address these challenges. Frequent calls for policies to affect transport demand itself by shifting travel to lower impact modes or avoiding travel altogether are therefore made.

There is a need for research based advice to guide policy making in regards to how to influence drivers and limits of mobility in order to simultaneously fulfill objectives of sustainability and mobility and obtain a desirable balance. However policy advice need to consider how research findings can support various stages of the policy making cycle, and the differentiated knowledge requirements associated with them, ranging from the setting of policy agendas to quantified fine tuning of existing policy instruments.

Based on theory on policy change and knowledge utilization the paper will present a typology to classify evidence based policy advice in regard to managing mobility, and apply this typology to interpret selected research results from the Drivers and Limits research project.