Urban mobility in planning: An exclusionary or a uniting force? Conceptualising urban mobility for the planning discipline

The mobility transition is increasingly viewed as a tool to improve social and environmental qualities of cities. Despite the vital role of mobility systems in connecting people and places, many elements of their current design also create socio-spatial exclusions and aggravate climate change and liveability challenges. Mobility and transport planning, however, have often worked in a disconnected way. This chapter sheds light on this dichotomy and outlines the contemporary shifts surrounding urban mobility and planning. Using mobilities theory and new conceptualisations of urban mobility, it argues that urban spaces are better off when city planning - rather than transport planning - is at the heart of their design. This offers a clear remit for planning students and practitioners to engage with urban mobility, appreciate its spatial imprint on cities and regions, and explore new tools and research methods to make sense of people's individual and collective mobility practices. This chapter concludes that urban (mobility) design needs to take account of the softer elements that constitute lived urban mobility experiences of diverse population groups. These elements include social, behavioural, and life course factors, but also the wider meanings of mobility, embodied experiences, and its environmental impacts. It suggests tools for research and practice to closely engage with the mobile subject and seek the assistance of big and small data sources. In line with the sizable role urban mobility transitions can play to address contemporary urban challenges, it introduces the key debates with the intention to provide food for the planning thought and practice.