Urban Mobility: How the iPhone, COVID, and Climate Changed Everything

Urban Mobility sheds light on mobility in twenty-first-century Canadian cities. The book explores the profound changes associated with technological innovation, pandemic-induced impacts on travel behaviour, and the urgent need for mobility to respond meaningfully to the climate crisis.

Featuring contributions from leading Canadian and American scholars and researchers, this edited collection traverses disciplines including geography, engineering, management, policy studies, political science, and urban planning. Chapters illuminate novel research findings related to a variety of modes of mobility, including public transit, e-scooters, bike-sharing, ride-hailing, and autonomous vehicles. Contributors draw out the connections between urban challenges, technological change, societal need, and governance mechanisms. The collection demonstrates why the smart phone, COVID-19, and climate present a crucial lens through which we can understand the present and future of urban mobility. The way we move in cities has been disrupted and altered because of technological innovation, the lingering impacts of COVID-19, and efforts to reduce transport-related emissions.

Urban Mobility concludes that the path forward requires good public policy from all levels of government, working in partnership with the private sector and non-profits to direct and address the best urban mobility framework for Canadian cities.