mobiliteitsstudies

Mobiliteitsstudies, or mobility studies, is an interdisciplinary field that examines how people and goods move, how transport systems are designed and operated, and how mobility interacts with urban form, technology, and policy. The field addresses accessibility, efficiency, reliability, safety, and environmental and social impacts of movement. It brings together perspectives from transport geography, urban and regional planning, civil engineering, economics, sociology, and data science.

Core topics include travel behavior and mobility patterns; transportation demand modeling; multimodal transport and integration of different modes; public transit, cycling, walking; freight logistics and supply chains; and sustainability, climate change, and equity considerations in access to mobility. Researchers also study policy instruments such as pricing, incentives, land-use zoning, and infrastructure investment, and evaluate their effects on behavior and outcomes.

Methods commonly used are quantitative analysis of surveys and travel diaries, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), network analysis, and transport models, including microsimulation and agent-based models. Data sources range from large-scale mobility surveys and official statistics to GPS/mobile phone data and sensor inputs, with attention to privacy and bias.

Education in mobiliteitsstudies is offered as undergraduate and graduate programs in some universities, often under mobility sciences, transport geography, or urban planning with a mobility focus. Graduates work in government agencies, regional and transport planning consultancies, research institutes, and private sector firms, contributing to policy development, planning, modeling, and impact assessment. The field continues to evolve with trends in decarbonization, electrification, autonomous and shared mobility, and the broader integration of transport with land use and digital infrastructure.