Sustainable mobility oases and their relationship with car ownership and mode share

Accessibility describes the ease to reach desired destinations and can be achieved through either mobility- or proximity-focussed policies. While car-centric planning focusses on the former, planning paradigms aiming to provide favourable conditions for sustainable travel highlight the latter. Established metrics to measure accessibility such as distance or travel time fall short of acknowledging the relevance of personal characteristics, time-of-the-day, infrastructure, multi-modality, and popularion distribution to providing feasible alternatives to car usage. Addressing these gaps, this study presents the concepts of Sustainable Mobility Deserts (SMDs) and Sustainable Mobility Oases (SMOs) to interpret accessibility through a multi-modal and inclusive lens. Data from the university market town of Loughborough, UK, is used as a case study to provide detailed insights into multi-modal deficiencies in the supply of sustainable transport options, revealing significantly higher deprivation levels in SMDs compared to SMOs. Based on the findings, the study proposes options to address the identified deficiencies, underscoring the potential of the SMO/SMD concept to inform planning practices,evaluate new developments, prioritise infrastructure investments, and assess the impact of demographic changes.