Page 263 - Çevre Şehir İklim İngilizce - Sayı 3

Cihan Erçetin

Introduction

Urban mobility is an indispensable need that can be realized with transportation
types such as private cars, buses, urban rail systems, and non-motorized
transportation modes such as pedestrian and bicycle transportation. According
to Lyons (2016), urban mobility can be defined as the ability of individuals,
information and products to move or move freely and easily in a location. Lynch
(1981), on the other hand, adds the dimensions of human experience, learning
together and socialization practice to urban mobility. In the recent century, the use
of automobiles in urban transportation has become increasingly dominant, and
many cities have been restructured as a result of policies and projects developed
to adapt to the increasing vehicle traffic in cities. During this reconstruction
period affecting the environment and climate change negatively, the construction
of new roads or multi-storey intersections, the expansion of existing roads at
the risk of narrowing pedestrian sidewalks, and the conversion of public spaces
that can be designed as urban interaction spaces into parking lots, have caused
the establishment of environmentally unsustainable living spaces in particular.
Mobility focused on the use of motor vehicles, which constitutes an unsustainable
structure, introduces automobile-oriented urban areas that bring along traffic
congestion, non-renewable energy dependence, air pollution problems as well
as social inequalities in accessibility to our lives.
The automobile can appear today as an attractive type of urban transportation
because it provides door-to-door transportation and relatively more comfort,
privacy and flexibility to decide on the route. Urban transportation policies,
plans and investments in the past have supported the growth of automobile use
by striving to provide more road capacity to meet the increasing demand for
vehicle traffic, despite its unsustainable consequences. Newly-built or expanded
roads that are developing along with private car-oriented urban transportation
systems, as well as the rapid expansion of cities due to more automobile use, are
creating urbanized areas that are focused on automobile use and automobile-
dependent lifestyles. However, in recent years, it has become increasingly clear
that the behavior of urban transportation related to the automobile can no longer
be sustained due to its environmental, economic and social consequences. The
world is substantially exposed to air and environmental pollution, which results
in gradually increasing carbon emissions as well as global climate change. The
transportation and urban mobility sector, especially due to the CO emissions
2
that emerge as a result of intensive automobile use, plays an important role in
this trend. The widespread use of the automobile brings economic problems
along with environmental issues, as it causes dependence on fossil fuels and oil
and the rapid depletion of resources. Car dependency leads to economic losses
for individuals and the states due to the increase in traffic accidents, energy
costs, taxes, the costs for traffic congestion and time loss. Moreover, the

248 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate