Move! Bringing Urban Public Transportation towards Sustainability

Abstract: Today’s societal development is not sustainable. The transportation sector has the potential role to be a tremendous lever for sustainability due to its central position in the societal structure as well as for the current unsustainable trends that occur in this system. Recommendations to public transportation providers were made by highlighting the main existing gaps between the current transportation system and an envisioned future transportation system that could exist in a sustainable society. To highlight these gaps, multiple perspectives were considered. These perspectives were enabled by e.g. User Journey Maps at the individual level and a holistic perspective over the broader urban transport system. The premise is that in order to increase use rates of public transportation, there is a need to better assess and address urban travellers' needs when commuting. For providers to have a strategic, stepwise approach and to be able to bring the public transportation system towards sustainability, the authors recommended that public transportation providers prioritize and implement future actions aligned with the three prioritization questions presented at the strategic level of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development and by defining a criterion that would emphasize that the users’ needs of importance highlighted in the study are fulfilled.