Is the Future of Mobility Electric? Learning from Contested Storylines of Sustainable Mobility in Iceland

Abstract

Planning for sustainable mobility is a complex and demanding task and the knowledge of how to trade off multiple, often conflicting, goals is not entirely clear. One of the most contentious and confounding issues in the context of urban planning has been, and continues to be, the place of the automobile within the evolving sustainable mobility paradigm. The recent emergence of strong policy and planning support for the introduction of electric vehicles raises thorny questions as to whether or not this development will be complementary to, or conflicting with, other sustainable mobility planning goals, such as the pursuit of compact cities, restrictions on automobiles, promotion of walking and bicycling, and support for public transport. The results of a recent pilot study conducted in the Reykjavik city region suggest that a strategy of provision for electric vehicles on a large scale may represent a continuation of the dominant transport engineering approach, drawing scarce financial and institutional resources away from path-breaking measures such as the efforts to create denser development patterns and promote non-motorized and public forms of transport.

Notes

“Fuel du jour” refers to the way in which a particular fuel “solution” becomes dominant within a particular policy/scientific context, but that this is not necessarily a fixed state of affairs.

In the first decade of this century, it was government policy to advance Iceland to become a hydrogen economy as soon as that would be technologically and economically viable (see e.g. Ministry of Industry, 2004).

All interviews took place in October 2009 and were conducted as part of the Future of Planning in Iceland project. Interviews were conducted by P. Mguni and P. Driscoll. Eggertsson, Dagur B., Chairman of the National Transportation Board, and Reykjavik City Councillor.

Örvarsdóttir, Ólöf, Director, Department of Planning and Building, City of Reykjavik.

Ingvarsson, Júlíus Vífill, Reykjavik City Councillor and Head of the Planning Committee.

Baldursson, Gísli Marteinn, Reykjavik City Councillor and Head of the Reykjavik Transport and Environment Committee.

Thors, Stefán, Director of the National Planning Agency.

Hermannsson, Thorsteinn R., transportation engineer, Mannvit Engineering.