Urban mobility digital twins in transport policy: governance challenges and policy trade-offs

Urban mobility digital twins (DTs) are increasingly promoted as data-driven tools to support planning and operational decision-making in cities. However, their policy value is not intrinsic to the technology itself; it depends on how DTs are designed, governed, and embedded within institutional processes. This short communication examines DT adoption through four governance perspectives from the governance literature, including hierarchical, network, polycentric, and adaptive, and highlights cross-cutting policy trade-offs relevant to transport policy, including flexibility versus accountability, integration versus complexity, and transparency versus vendor dependence. The paper suggests that DTs can support coordination and experimentation under appropriate governance conditions, but they may also reproduce power asymmetries, reduce transparency, and institutionalize biased assumptions when oversight is weak. The contribution is a governance-focused synthesis that clarifies key challenges and identifies practical policy considerations for the responsible use of DTs in urban mobility.