Project description
Shifting gears in urban transport policy
In the realm of transport policy, ambitious proposals to reduce car usage and foster sustainable transportation encounter fierce opposition. Despite the potential benefits for health and the environment, efforts to transform urban landscapes face significant resistance. This discrepancy, known as the ‘active travel backlash paradox’, highlights a gap in understanding between vocal dissent and underlying public sentiment. In this context, the ERC-funded ATRAPA project aims to unravel this paradox. Working across eight European cities, the project uses diverse methods, from spatial election analysis to international surveys and expert interviews. By probing factors behind opposition and acceptance of built environment-based travel interventions, ATRAPA paves the way for sustainable transport policies.
Objective
Transport policy is a contentious issue. In recent years, ambitious proposals aiming at reducing car use and creating a more sustainable, equitable, and healthy transportation system have been met with strong opposition movements. However, little is known about the factors and nature of these opposition movements. At the same time, mayors, and elected leaders worldwide, who have pushed for ambitious built environment-based travel demand policies, have later been vindicated by major re-election wins. This would suggest the existence of an “active travel backlash paradox”, one where loud opposition movements might be concealing substantial silent support towards measures that aim to transform the built environment, in order to make it more walkable and cyclable.
Validating the existence of this paradox, and expanding our understanding of opposition and acceptability factors towards built environment-based sustainable travel interventions, has major implications both locally and globally. To this end, the ATRAPA project sets out to (1) test the existence of the paradox and (2) to further our understanding of opposition and acceptability towards built environment travel demand interventions.
To do so I will use a multi-scale, multi-method design to be applied in eight leading European cities. Thanks to highly disaggregated spatial election data and geolocated information on land-use transformations, I will be able to assess the associations between voting behaviour and built environment-based sustainable travel interventions. In parallel, I will use an international public opinion survey and interviews with experts to understand, the socioeconomic, individual, and contextual factors behind acceptability/opposition levels. This will assist in understanding their causes, and their spatial and social distribution, and permit exploration of much-needed future least-opposition pathways towards efficient and widely-accepted sustainable transport policies.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08193 Cerdanyola Del Valles
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.