The ethics of mobility: a framework for assessing mobility paradigms

Given the recognised adverse effects of automobility, there is a strong need for a normative assessment framework capable of evaluating the desirability of mobility arrangements, including transport infrastructure and its supportive urban form. The existing decision-making framework, based on technical models, does not incorporate an analysis of what mobility ought to achieve. By adopting the rationale used by moral philosophers, it is possible to construct a framework of norms based on the ends that mobility should achieve. Mobility should produce positive and equitably distributed benefits not just economically, but also environmentally and socially.