Optimising Low Carbon Mobility for Health and Equity

Abstract

In modern human habitats, the places people reside and the goods, services and people that contribute to their wellbeing are often separated geographically, and transport options confer a health benefit by enabling access. The notion that access for equitable human wellbeing is the purpose of a transport system challenges the current neoliberal transport policy discourse, dominated by a perceived need to move goods, capital and labour for economic growth. In this chapter, we focus on low carbon transitions for land transport in cities that can also promote wellbeing and improve social justice, especially in cities that are currently dominated by the use of private motor vehicles for most trips. We critically review the links between land transport and health using a broad public health framework, arguing that policy processes need to account for complex dynamics and model a wider range of future outcomes in analysis of costs and benefits. Further, that these processes must involve the communities whose transport patterns are expected to change. We provide two real world examples of these principles in action from Auckland, New Zealand, a city with 60 years of urban planning predicated on universal car ownership and use.