Identifying key factors that make sustainable mobility transitions last - An analysis of urban mobility initiatives during COVID-19 lockdowns

What makes sustainability transitions last? This is a core question of sustainability scientists around the world. The aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdowns is a propitious moment to understand how impulses for radical change and path dependencies interact - a critical area of future research. This project uses this moment to identify key factors that enable radical change and prevent relapses, using the example of mobility transitions in cities. The project aims to stimulate research on factors that make transition efforts last and inform local decision makers, civil society and business about opportunities and risks of rapid responses. As the duration of the current crisis is uncertain and progressing climate change will likely confront us with other crises in the future, it will be critical for human development to determine how such crises can become an opportunity ? - rather than a threat - for the transition towards a sustainable society.