Shifting Towards Sustainable Mobility: Challenging the Predominance of the Private Car Regime

The Multiple-Level Perspective (MLP) theory has been extensively adopted in the sustainable mobility literature as a tool for analyzing the transition towards more sustainable modes and transportation methods; however, certain authors have pointed out some shortcomings. Namely, the underestimation of the role of actors’ agency, power, and politics during the transition process. Therefore, in an attempt to bridge this gap, two additional subcategories were incorporated along with the core levels of MLP theory. Specifically, the classification of actors as either a ‘Source of Inertia’ or a ‘Source of Change’ was considered in order to aid in distinguishing certain situations in which actors and key stakeholders, i.e., policymakers, can act as either a barrier or source of change within the sustainable mobility transition process. Altogether, the identified sources of change and inertia influencing the transition towards sustainable mobility within this report were by no means limited to only technical factors as societal, administrative, political, and economic factors– along with the interplay between them– have all been just as equally prominent in influencing such a transition process.