Mobility transition through labs in real-world contexts. The contribution of transdisciplinary approaches in creating sustainable transportation systems

Abstract

Major transformations are needed to achieve more sustainable transport practices. Taking the persistence of transport systems into account, a variety of participatory and experimental approaches have emerged, such as urban living labs and real-world labs, to develop solutions in a transdisciplinary collaboration. Despite the anticipated importance of such transdisciplinary approaches, there remains a gap in the empirical evaluation of their effectiveness in driving sustainable change. To better understand the potential of such approaches, we used a scoping review of existing literature on (1) the extent to which transdisciplinary lab approaches are used in transportation, (2) how they are conducted in terms of transdisciplinary collaboration and (3) how outcomes are measured and evaluated. The results show that transdisciplinary labs are still generally a marginal but growing approach in the field of transportation. They cover a wide range from technology-centred to socio-ecological approaches with varying levels of stakeholder involvement. We highlight the potential of transdisciplinary labs to bridge long-standing participation gaps within transportation planning. Yet, robust evaluation of results within these approaches is limited. This constrains the empirical significance of the results and hinders transferability and scalability.