Mobility

Mobility is the capacity to move or be moved from one place to another. In everyday use, it describes the movement of people and goods within a geographic area or across distances. The concept spans several disciplines and scales, from individual travel to societal and technical systems.

In transportation and urban planning, mobility focuses on how people access destinations and services. This includes private vehicles, public transit, walking, cycling, and emerging mobility services. Policies aim to improve efficiency, safety, accessibility, and environmental sustainability, often by reducing car dependence and expanding multimodal networks.

In biology and medicine, cellular mobility refers to the movement of cells and microorganisms, which is critical to development, immune response, wound healing, and metastasis.

In physics and materials science, electrical mobility describes how quickly charge carriers respond to an electric field, a property influenced by temperature, impurities, and material structure. In wireless communication, device mobility affects signal quality and network performance.

Social and economic mobility describes changes in an individual’s or group's economic status, typically across generations or within lifetimes. Geographical mobility concerns the ability to relocate for work, education, or personal reasons, influenced by housing costs, employment opportunities, and policy.

Technologies such as mobility-as-a-service, autonomous vehicles, and location-aware networking have reshaped expectations about mobility but require consideration of safety, privacy, labor impacts, and equity.