CSID held a webinar on Sustainable Mobility titled “Shifting Context of Sustainable Mobility -Shifting Context of Sustainable Mobility from Livable to Smart Cities”on Friday, October 21, 2022, from 19:00 – 21:00 (GMT+7), with Dr. Outi Luova from the University of Turku, Finland,the speaker. Dr. Outi Luova brought two case cities, Graz (Austria) and Hangzhou (China), as the models of sustainable mobility transition. The presentation was based on the idea that in-depth and comparative studies are needed to increase our understanding of sustainable transition in different parts of the world.
This webinar aims to promote active modes of transportation for commuting to and from as well as transiting within university campuses in response to the challenges of enhancing sustainability in the transportation sector. Furthermore, through this webinar, the participants are expected to master problem recognition and problem-solving competencies. Therefore, this webinar also explained Indonesian cities’ sustainability issues, how they are taASEAN’sand ASEAN’s approach to sustainable urban development.
Universities are unique communities with rapidly-expanding populations in need of transportation options; simultaneously, they are capable of engendering an educational milieu for sustainability. As a result of increased university attendance, the number of commuters to and from university campuses has likewise increased. Disproportionately, the majority of these commuters use private automobiles. The dependency on private automobiles is directly related to the lack of appropriate infrastructures and strategies for sharing other modes of transportation.
This level of automobile usage, directly and indirectly, impacts the quality of the environment on university campuses and their surrounding neighborhoods. Spatial impacts include congestion; poor or inaccessibility; occupation of land area for parking; air and noise pollution; energy consumption; and deterioration of visual and natural conditions. In addition to these environmental impacts, there are also many tangible and intangible social impacts such as declining health of staff, students, and neighbors; disturbance of work, study, living, and teaching environments; reduced personal safety and increased number of accidents; waste of time during periods of traffic congestion; and growth of mental health problems. These are all externalities of unsustainable transportation systems. Fortunately, awareness about their negative impacts has greatly increased along with special attempts by university planners to supply sustainable transportation options. Consideration of concerns related to the transportation sector is a first step in moving towards achieving sustainability on university campuses.
