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Twenty-minute neighbourhoods highlight the importance of well-connected and mixed-used neighbourhoods and communities with proximate access to employment, essential services, public transport, and open spaces. Shorter distances together with re-prioritised public spaces encourage more active transport choices, resulting in public health benefits and reduced environmental pollution. Higher liveability brought about by mixed-use developments enables people to have equitable access to local facilities, amenities, and employment opportunities, promoting vibrancy, social cohesion, and intergenerational connections. The attributes of 20-minute neighbourhoods also combine to create places, that are acknowledged as friendly for all ages, address changing needs across the life course, and provide better support for the ageing population. Furthermore, there are indications that 20-minute neighbourhoods may be more resilient against many of the negative impacts of stringent public health protocols such as those implemented in periods of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this article, we evaluate and compare planning policies and practices aimed at establishing 20-minute neighbourhoods in Melbourne (Australia) and Scotland (the UK). Using case studies, we discuss similarities and differences involved in using place-based approaches of 20-minute neighbourhoods to address 21st-century challenges in key areas of health and wellbeing, equity, environmental sustainability, and community resilience.

Logistics systems constitute the backbone of international trade. For developing countries, establishment of sustainable logistics systems reduces costs, and makes supply chains strong to become able to compete. Without setting indicators for sustainable logistics, it is not possible to understand what policies are necessary for success. Logistics systems situations become worse in especial industries such as Fast-Moving Consuming Goods (FMCG) industry that are facing observable challenges such as old-fashioned goods or product corruption. The objective of this paper is to determine a set of indicators, which can be helpful in enhancement of sustainable logistics systems in developing countries. An initial set of indicators is determined through literature review and justified by asking experts’ opinions who have experience of management in logistics systems in developing countries such as Iran and Afghanistan, especially in logistics management in FMCG industry. The indicators are prioritized using Best–Worst Method (BWM), which is a newly introduced decision-making model. Results of prioritization of finalized dimensions and indicators by use of BWM show that “Governance” has the highest importance among dimensions and “management commitment to sustainability” is the most important indicator among all indicators. The results are applicably acceptable as we can see in business circumstances that only when managers believe in perusing sustainability principles as an important factor under each type of economic circumstance, an efficient vision will be set. Risk management has gained the least weight in this study. Based on experts’ opinions, if policies and procedures are set and performed correctly, risks will be less probable by themselves. The results help mangers in assignment of limited budgets to improvement projects related to each indicator.

This research sets out to examine the interaction between accessibility, social inequalities and sustainability by revisiting a well-documented case of inequalities in access in Global South cities: Bogotá. Our analysis builds on the concept of accessibility, focusing on the role of transport as an enabler of opportunities for social interactions, healthcare and leisure, which are essential to the full participation in society. The research applies a methodological framework for accessibility developed and tested in the Latin American context, though it has not been previously applied to non-commuting travel. Our paper contributes to the existing evidence base showing the relevance of non-commuting travel to sustainable transport assessment in contexts of high inequality, which can be scaled up and applied in other contexts with various levels of social and environmental inequalities. The empirical analysis is based on data from Bogotá’s household travel survey. Using this dataset, we measure accessibility using a gravitational type of metric that is calibrated based on observed travel behavior. Accessibility levels were estimated by car and public transport for every zonal planning unit in the Bogotá Region. Accessibility indices are analyzed from an equity perspective using metrics such as the Palma ratio for differences of income and socioeconomic positions. Results show that on average, low- and middle-income areas have higher accessibility than high-income areas by both private and public transport. Accessibility conditions are discussed considering a framework of transitions to sustainable urban mobility, reflecting on various drivers and consequences of barriers to access in different areas and social groups. Our findings provide insights to support actions that redistribute accessibility of opportunities beyond the job market, questioning the applicability of accessibility measures to discuss equity and sustainability in cities such as Bogotá.

textabstractGovernments around the world are adopting inclusive growth agendas. The ambition to align economic growth ambitions with broader-based social benefits is increasingly embraced by corporations to limit the ‘negative externalities’ and enhance the ‘positive externalities’ of their operations. Therefore, micro-level corporate strategies and macro-level national ambitions meet at the meso-level of networks and clusters. This requires societal spheres to collaborate and search for alternative governance constellations. In this discourse, port development is only recently receiving attention. In March 2018, ports around the world signed the World Ports Sustainability Program declaration, which aims to contribute to the sustainable development goals (SDGs), whilst a number of national port (master) plans have started to include social along with environmental standards. Extant studies on partnering and stakeholder inclusion in port development are proliferating but are primarily aimed at environmental rather than social (inclusion) issues. This paper adopts an exploratory research design to consider conditions for inclusive port development. A novel taxonomy considers port development as a driver for inclusive growth, where partnerships are the missing link between micro-level business strategies and macro-level effects in the port region and economy at large. This paper shows the first findings and delineates areas for further research.

Transportation is an important factor affecting the balance of regional economic pattern. The construction of high-speed railway enhances the mobility of population, capital, technology and information resources between urban and rural areas. Will it further affect the income gap between urban and rural areas? Based on the nonlinear time-varying factor model, this paper analyzes the convergence of urban-rural income gap with the angle of high-speed railway. After rejecting the assumption of overall convergence in the traditional four economic regions, three convergence clubs of urban-rural income gap were found. For these ordered logit regression model is used to explore the initial factors that may affect the formation of “convergence club”. Empirical results show that the construction of High-speed railway has effectively narrows the urban-rural income gap in China, but it is not the cause of the formation of the three convergence clubs. The convergence effect of High-speed railway on the urban-rural income gap in China is still relatively weak.

Transport can play a key role in mitigating climate change, through reducing traffic, emissions and dependency on private vehicles. Transport is also crucial to connect remote areas to central or urban areas. Yet, sustainable and flexible transport is among the greatest challenges for rural areas and rural–urban regions. Innovative transport concepts and approaches are urgently needed to foster sustainable and integrated regional development. This article addresses challenges of sustainability, accessibility, and connectivity through examining complementary systems to existing public transport, including demand-responsive transport and multimodal mobility. We draw upon case studies from the Metropolitan Area of Styria, Ljubljana Urban Region and rural Wales (GUSTmobil, REGIOtim, EURBAN, Bicikelj, Bwcabus, Grass Routes). In-depth analysis through a mixed-methods case study design captures the complexity behind these chosen examples, which form a basis for analysing the effects of services on accessibility for different groups, connectivity to public transport and usability as a “first and last mile” feeder. We further explore the weaknesses of complementary transport systems, including legal, organisational and financial barriers, and offer potential solutions to structure and communicate complementary transport systems to improve access and use. Looking ahead, we use the case studies to anticipate innovative, sustainable “mobility as a service” (MaaS) solutions within and between urban and rural areas and consider how future public policy orientations and arrangements can enable positive change. A main concern of our article and the contribution to scientific literature is through exploring the benefit of well-established multi-level governance arrangements when introducing smaller-scale mobility solutions to improve rural–urban accessibility. It becomes clear that not a one-size-fits-all model but placed-based and tailored approaches lead to successful and sustainable concepts.

The aim of this paper is to analyze Rogers-system categories of electric vehicle adopters in Tenerife (Canary Islands) to highlight the psychological factors defining each category. The paper runs a model to calculate willingness to change and willingness to pay for an electric vehicle following the contingent valuation methodology. A survey performed in Tenerife Island collected data from 444 private cars drivers. The survey contained a set of questions on psychological and car-features issues, as well as other items querying the socioeconomic factors and mobility characteristics of the drivers. This paper brings key contributions to the literature. First, it uses two theoretical frameworks to define the categories of innovators from a psychosocial standpoint. Second, the results will usefully inform both policymakers and automaker marketing departments on specific actions to accelerate the uptake of electric vehicles. Our results confirm that electric vehicle adopter categories are similar in proportion and characteristics to those of Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory, and can be collapsed into two macro-groups of adopters distributed in a 50%–50% split in our sample, i.e., the earlier adopters and the later adopters.