It is now almost three decades since the concept of ‘sustainable mobility’ first appeared in the 1992 EU Green Paper on the Impact of Transport on the Environment. This paper reviews the literature and reflects on how societies’ understanding and interpretation of the concept of sustainable mobility has evolved. We track this evolution over six dimensions: research and policy, transport impacts and categories, scientific disciplines, methodological approach, and research questions. From this review we assert that the mainstream understanding and interpretation of sustainable mobility can be grouped into four generations of studies. The first generation of studies (1992–1993) were techno-centric and focused on how to limit transport’s negative environmental impacts by improving then-existing technology. The second, third and fourth generations of studies (1993–2000, 2000–2010 and 2010–2018 respectively) increasingly acknowledge the limitations of preceding efforts to achieve sustainable mobility, and open for a more diverse set of alternatives. These studies have gradually become more interdisciplinary in nature—reflecting the inter-relatedness of mobility with all other aspects of society. We conclude that despite the ensuing elevation of mobility into the holistic picture society, we still have not achieved a sustainable mobility system. Furthermore, what is much needed now, more than ever, is a bold set of new narratives.

The role of governments in the regulation of potentially beneficial low carbon practices, such as car sharing, has proved difficult, as there are many different actors involved and as existing practices can be undermined. The mobility sector provides clear evidence of these dilemmas, as a wide range of users need to be engaged in the discourse over the innovations, and as existing governance structures may be unsuitable for addressing both the opportunities and limitations of innovation. This paper focuses on the sustainability implications of shared mobility and the need for new approaches to governance. A qualitative study of car sharing in London is used to examine the ideas, incentives, and institutions of the key actors involved in this sharing sector. The elements of change and continuity in the emerging sharing economy indicate the different possibilities for enhancing sustainable mobility. Any search for an alternative governance regime should take account of the ideational factors that would require an understanding of the different incentives needed to accommodate the full range of actors involved with the sharing economy.

(2012). Transport and economic development: reviewing the evidence. Transport Reviews: Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 1-2.

In an earlier publication (Van Wee & Banister, 2016), we explained that literature review papers (LRP) should explicitly report on the search and selection process of documents included. In this paper, we present two approaches for reporting the methodology for doing this: a basic approach and a reasoned approach. The basic approach includes reporting databases(s), keywords, search strings, snowballing, the selection of documents, presenting an overview of documents included and reporting additional selection criteria (if applicable). The reasoned approach adds to the basic approach (what was done) by explicitly explaining the motivation for choices and showing the selection process graphically (why it was done). The two approaches should be seen as options, and not the only alternatives. We recommend that authors of LRPs depart from these approaches and modify them where appropriate. The important lesson is that authors should be explicit about the approach adopted, as this enables the reader to understand the thinking behind the LRP and the conclusions drawn.

(2019). The climate crisis and transport. Transport Reviews: Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 565-568.

(2019). Transport for all. Transport Reviews: Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 289-292.