Sustainable Mobility in a Fast-Changing

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Nancy Vandycke and José M. Viegas

Sustainable Mobility in a Fast-Changing

World
From Concept to Action
Nancy Vandycke
Plouescat, France

José M. Viegas
Lisbon, Portugal

ISSN 2523-3084 e-ISSN 2523-3092

Sustainable Development Goals Series
ISBN 978-3-031-08960-2 e-ISBN 978-3-031-08961-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08961-9

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To Maëlle, Raphaël, and all the children in this world. May the winds fill
their sails with hope and courage, inspiring them to act for our better
future.
—Nancy Vandycke
To my former students, who over several decades have been a constant
source of motivation, and often also inspiration and pride for what they
have been able to achieve.
—José M. Viegas
Acknowledgments
“Sustainable Mobility in a Fast-Changing World: From Concept to
Action” would have never been possible without the incredible support
of Samuel Lee—for valuable contributions to the drafting of most
chapters, —Josephine Njoki Irungu (research assistance), and Chitra
Archot (editorial consultant).
This book was written to raise the visibility of the work of the
Sustainable Mobility for All Partnership, a complement to reach a wider
audience beyond the traditional public policy realm like academia and
transport practitioners. We remain grateful to the Partnership and its
Steering Committee for their encouragement in bringing this project to
publication. Special thanks are extended to Binyam Reja (World Bank),
Nicolas Beaumont (Michelin), Maruxa Cardama (SLOCAT Partnership
on Sustainable, Low Carbon Transport), Benjamin Jeromin (German
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development), Anne
Joselin (UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office), Sheila
Watson (FIA Foundation), Alana Dave (International Transport
Workers Federation), Daniel Moser (Transformative Urban Mobility
Initiative), Clotilde Rossi Di Schio (Sustainable Energy for All), Ben
Hartley (Sustainable Energy for All), Francesco Dionori (United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe), Thomas Deloison (World Business
Council for Sustainable Development), and Mohammed Alsayed
(Islamic Development Bank). Without the financial support of the
Michelin Foundation, the World Bank, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth
and Development Office, and the German Cooperation Deutsche
Zusammenarbeit, the Partnership and its work would have never
materialized. The support of these individuals and funding
organizations worked seamlessly in tandem to support the vision of
this book, and the vision of sustainable mobility.
The ideas expressed in this book do not represent the views of the
individual member organizations of the Partnership, or the
organizations the authors belong to. Many elements of the book were
discussed as background material in several international conferences
and fora. The authors used several early chapters of the book as course
material for a World Bank Open Learning Campus knowledge exchange
course titled “Sustainable Mobility requires a New Approach Today.”
The production of this online course benefited from financial support
from the Open Learning Campus managed Trust Fund from the
Republic of Korea, Michelin Foundation, the World Bank, the UK
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the German
Cooperation Deutsche Zusammenarbeit. We also owe our thanks to the
participants of this course, who provided enthusiasm and formed a
useful space for fine-tuning the communication of ideas and concepts in
this book. Our thanks go also to Nicolas Beaumont, Young Tae Kim,
Zeph Nhleko, Susanna Zammataro, Claire-Marie Bernard, Jan Hoffman,
Frida Youssef, Irena Zubcevic, Jascha Franklin-Hodge, Jamal Saghir,
Gurpreet Singh Sehmi, Mary Ngaratoki Fabian, Emiye Deneke, Javier
Morales Sarriera, Holly Krambeck, Justin Coetzee, and Xavier Espinet
who generously contributed their time to the development of the online
course, much of which also doubled as feedback for this book.
Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge the experts,
sponsors, and contributors to the original publications of the
Partnership that provided a solid foundation for this book. This group
provided comments and encouragement all through the development
of these publications and beyond. Our special thanks go to Jean Todt,
Hartwig Schafer, Mahmoud Mohieldin, Makhtar Diop, Arianna Legovini,
Nicolas Peltier, Guangzhe Chen, Franz Drees-Gross, Paul Noumba,
Laurence Carter, Pankaj Gupta, Maria Marcela Silva, Shomik
Mehndiratta, Gerald Ollivier, Karla Gonzalez, Ibou Diouf, Laurent Rosec,
and Sheila Jagannathan. Without their diligence and commitment to
transport and sustainable mobility, those foundational publications
would have never emerged.

Nancy Vandycke

José M. Viegas
Praise for Sustainable Mobility in a Fast-Changing
World
“Above all, the ambition of the Sustainable Mobility for All partnership
is rooted in strategically meeting the challenges of an unstable and
unpredictable future. True to its roots, Sustainable Mobility in a Fast-
Changing World takes readers through the dynamics shaping our world
today and in the future, and what can be done to help ensure a brighter
future for all through sustainable mobility. The action needed today has
never been clearer, and this book shares this message and related tools
with country decision makers in search of objective answers and
strategic guidance.”
—Sustainable Mobility for All Steering Committee
“Progress towards sustainable mobility has been slow, not because
of a lack of effort but more because a global vision has been lacking.
This book calls for a new global approach to public decision making on
mobility through a focus on decentralised and participatory measures.
The authors have produced an authoritative, well-researched and
ambitious perspective through the development of a global sustainable
mobility score, a toolkit, and a comprehensive range of actions at the
national level. We all contribute to unsustainable mobility and this new
systematic guidance provides a clear framework within which to
compare, debate and decide on effective action. This book will help all
countries facilitate progress towards sustainable mobility.”
—David Banister, Professor Emeritus of Transport Studies, University
of Oxford, UK
“I wish this book existed when I was the Mayor of Quito, especially
when I decided to undertake the construction of the first metro line in
my city, the first in Ecuador. The authors’ expertise in the field is a great
resource and solid foundation for the development of a much-needed
new approach to transport, which highlights the importance of multi-
stakeholder partnerships between and across local, national
governments, and other sectors. Innovative partnerships are key to a
paradigm shift in urban mobility for attaining sustainability in
transport, emphasizing the focus of planning needs to shift from traffic
to people.”
 —Mauricio Rodas Espinel, Former Mayor of Quito
“The mobility of people and goods within domestic borders and
internationally is a critical lynchpin of global economic development.
As such, sustainable mobility is a requirement for sustainable
development, a known requirement to reverse the effects of climate
change. Vital for both developed and developing countries, this book
sets strategic goals for sustainable mobility coupled with practical ideas
and actions for a better future.”
—Jean-Pierre Loubinoux, Honorary Director General of UIC,
International Association of Railways; Member of the UN High-Level
Advisory Group on Sustainable Transport
“This is an invaluable read for countries that are serious about
achieving the collective aspirations of the SDGs and the Paris
Agreement. Drawing on their decades of international experience and
expertise in the field, the authors outline the dynamics shaping the
future of global transport and offer a useful toolkit for strategic national
policy formulation in the sector. Policymakers, public transport
officials, financiers of transport infrastructure and services, and
transport professionals will find this book on sustainable mobility very
useful.”
—Zeph Nhleko, Chief Economist, Development Bank of Southern
Africa
“The authors address the right set of issues and challenges facing
the transport sector. It comes at the right time when decision makers
are in search of ways to change current development trajectory toward
a new one incorporating the SDGs and climate mitigation and
adaptation considerations. It brings together the deep knowledge
generated by the World Bank Group, SuM4All and the affiliated
organizations into a coherent structure proposing a new approach, set
of tools and solutions.”
—Jamal Saghir, Professor of Practice, Institute for the Study of
International Development, McGill University. Former Director at the
World Bank Group
Abbreviations
4IR Fourth Industrial Revolution
AI Artificial Intelligence
BMZ German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and
Development
BRT Bus Rapid Transit
CAP Country Action Plan
COP Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
CORSIA Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International
Aviation
CPM Catalogue of Policy Measures toward Sustainable Mobility
DBSA Development Bank of Southern Africa
EV Electric Vehicle
FCDO UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
GHG Greenhouse Gas
GMR Global Mobility Report
GRA Global Roadmap of Action toward Sustainable Mobility
GTF Global Tracking Framework for Transport
ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization
ICT Information and Communications Technology
IEA International Energy Agency
IRF International Road Federation
ITF International Transport Forum
LPI Logistics Performance Index
MBT Minibus Taxi
MDB Multilateral Development Bank
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
OECD Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
PAP Prototype Action Plan
PPP Public-Private Partnership
R&D Research and Development
RAI Rural Accessibility Index
RTR Rapid Transit to Resident Ratio
SDGs Sustainable Development Goals
SSA Sub-Saharan Africa
SuM4All Sustainable Mobility for All
TNCs Transportation Networking Companies
UIC International Union of Railways
UMIC Upper Middle-Income Country
UN United Nations
UNCTAD United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
WB World Bank
WHO World Health Organization
WTO World Trade Organization
Contents
1 Preface
References
Part I The Urgent Need for a New Approach
2 Key Trends Shaping the Future of Mobility
2.​1 A New Political Ambition
2.​2 Hyper Digitalization (Data and Technology)
2.​3 A New Governance Paradigm
2.​4 Equity and Inclusion
References
3 From Sustainable Development Goals to Sustainable Mobility
3.​1 Setting the Ambition High for the Well-Being of Humankind
3.​2 Linking Transport with the SDG Framework
3.​3 Toward a Shared Definition for Sustainable Mobility
References
4 The Power of Data and New Technologies
4.​1 A High-Tech, Data-Driven Future
4.​2 The Impact of Hyper Digitalization on Transport
4.​3 The Digital Divide and Transport
4.​4 Immediate and Future Data Needs:​Data Sharing and
Partnerships
References
5 A New Governance Paradigm
5.​1 Globalization and the Expanding Scope of Transport
Governance
5.​2 Participatory Government and Citizen Engagement
 5.​3 Devolution and Decentralization​
5.​4 Implications for Transport Policy
References
6 Toward More Equitable and Inclusive Transport
6.​1 Equity and Inclusion in Transport Design and Practice
6.​2 Known Equity Gaps—Understanding Structural Barriers to
Access
6.​3 Implications for More Inclusive Transport and Mobility
References
Part II A New Approach to Policy-Making on Transport and
Mobility
7 A Systemic Approach to Transport and Mobility
7.​1 The Modern Transport System and Risks
7.​2 Three Critical Risks to the Modern Transport System
7.​3 Resilience of the Transport System
References
8 Responding to Changing Dynamics with a New Path Forward:​
Sustainable Mobility for All
8.​1 The Imperative for a New Coalition in Transport
8.​2 The Sustainable Mobility for All Umbrella
8.​3 A Systematic Approach Toward Improved Decision-Making
in Transport
8.​4 How the New Approach and Tools Responded to the Four
Dynamics
References
9 Defining the Playing Field:​The Global Tracking Framework
9.​1 Setting the Four-Goal Vision for Sustainable Mobility
9.​2 Global Tracking Framework for Transport
 9.​3 Sustainability Gap Analysis
9.​4 Global Sustainable Mobility Composite Score
9.​5 Country Diagnostic on Sustainable Mobility
9.​6 Conclusion
Annex 9.​A:​Global Tracking Framework for Transport
References
10 Building a Global Policy Knowledge Collective:​The Catalogue of
Policy Measures toward Sustainable Mobility
10.​1 A Unique Crowdsourcing Effort
10.​2 Catalogue of Policy Measures
10.​3 Conclusion
Annex 10.​A:​The Catalogue of Policy Measures Toward
Sustainable Mobility
References
11 Priming for Coherent Country Action:​Prototype and Country
Action Plans
11.​1 Policy Measure Evaluation
11.​2 Prototype Action Plan
11.​3 Developing the Country Action Plan
11.​4 Conclusion
Annex 11.​A—Selection Algorithm of Policy Measures
Appendix 11.​B—Action Plan Booster (Conditional), an
Extension of the Selection Algorithm
References
12 From Methodology to Implementation:​The Case of South Africa
12.​1 The Rapidly Evolving Context
12.​2 Country Diagnostic on Sustainable Mobility
 12.​3 Country Action Plan on Sustainable Mobility
Annex 12.​A:​South Africa—Mobility Performances
Annex 12.​B:​South Africa’s Prototype Action Plan
References
13 The Next Frontier of Mobility
13.​1 Meeting the Need for a New Approach to Transport
Decision-Making
13.​2 The Future of the Movement
13.​3 Country Support Beyond Existing Tools
13.​4 Closing Thoughts
References
Index
List of Figures
Fig. 3.1 Four objectives and the SDG targets (Source Sustainable
Mobility for All. 2017. Global Mobility Report 2017: Tracking Sector
Performance. Washington, DC: Sustainable Mobility for All. ISBN: 978-
0-692-95670-0. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY
3.0. Figure 1.1: Four Objectives and SDG Targets, page 27)

Fig. 4.1 Percentage of individuals using the Internet, by region and

development (Source International Telecommunication Union, 2019.
Measuring Digital Development: Facts and Figures. Figure extracted
from Page 2. https://www.itu.int/en/ITU-
D/Statistics/Documents/facts/FactsFigures2019.pdf. Note Least
Developed Countries are a classification of low-income countries facing
severe structural impediments to sustainable development. Criteria are
reviewed every three years by the UN’s Committee for Development
Policy [CDP])

Fig. 7.1 An expanded view of the modern transport system, risks and
resilience (Source Original to the authors)

Fig. 8.1 Transport’s new approach and its set of tools (Source Original to
the authors)

Fig. 9.1 Sustainable mobility and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals

(Source Adaptation from Sustainable Mobility for All. 2017. Global
Mobility Report 2017: Tracking Sector Performance. Washington DC:
Sustainable Mobility for All. ISBN: 978-0-692-95670-0. License:
Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0. Figure 1.1: Four Objectives
and SDG Targets, page 27)
Fig. 9.2 The global tracking framework (GTF) for transport in context
(Source Original to the authors)

Fig. 9.3 Example of a country efficiency gap—South Africa. Efficiency as

measured by the principal indicator for efficiency in the Global
Tracking Framework for Transport—the logistics performance index
(LPI), normalized. Data for charts derived from the LPI are from the
years 2007–2018 (Source Original to the authors)

Fig. 10.1 Catalogue of Policy Measures toward Sustainable Mobility

(CPM) in context (Source Original to the authors)

Fig. 11.1 Prototype action plan, selection algorithm and booster

(conditional) in context (Source Original to the authors)

Fig. 11.2 Country action plan in context (Source Original to the authors)

Fig. 11.A.1 Development process of a prototype action plan (Source

Original to the authors)

Fig. 11.B.1 Prototype action plan and selection algorithm evolution

(Source Original to the authors)

Fig. 11.B.2 Action plan booster development process (Source Original to

the authors)

Fig. 11.B.3 Determining transport market segment performance in

Phase I (Source Original to the authors)
Fig. 11.B.4 Transport market segmentation (Source Original to the
authors)

Fig. 12.1 South Africa—Global Performances on the SDGs and

Sustainable Mobility (Source Sustainable Mobility for All. 2022. GRA in
Action series: South Africa’s Mobility Report: Tracking Transport Sector
Performance. Figure 1.1: Global SDG and Global Sustainable Mobility
Index Score, 2020, page 19. Washington, DC: Sustainable Mobility for
All, forthcoming. ISBN: 979-8-9859982-5-2. Licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0. Note The distribution of
country performances on SDGs and sustainable mobility shows a
correlation between these variables. Countries should aim to move
toward the upper-right quadrant, in part by enhancing their
sustainable mobility performance. Data for this visual is derived from
the Sustainable Development Solutions Network [SDSN] SDG index
2020 and Sustainable Mobility for All Global Tracking Framework for
Transport, Sustainable Mobility Performance Index, 2020)

Fig. 12.2 South Africa’s global mobility performances by policy goals

(100 = best performing country in the world. The area shaded in green
represents South Africa’s mobility performance, showing weaker
performance in urban access. Noise Pollution and Gender are two
important dimensions missing due to data limitations; Data are derived
from the GTF’s principal indicators for the four policy goals: Rural–
Computation on rural access index, geospatial RAI methodology
[RECAP 2016]; Urban–Computation on rapid transit to resident ratio
[ITDP 2018–2019]; Efficiency: Computation on logistics performance
index—overall [World Bank 2018]; Safety: Computation on mortality
due to road traffic injury [World Health Organization 2016]; Air
Pollution—computation on PM2.5 air pollution, annual mean exposure
[Global Burden of Disease Study 2017]; GHG emissions—Computation
on transport related GHG emissions per capita [World Bank
computation on International Energy Agency data 2016] (Source
Sustainable Mobility for All. 2022. GRA in Action series: South Africa’s
Mobility Report: Tracking Transport Sector Performance. Figure ES.1:
South Africa’s sustainability gap analysis against global benchmarks,
page 11. Washington DC: Sustainable Mobility for All, forthcoming.
ISBN: 979-8-9859982-5-2. Licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution CC BY 3.0)

Fig. 12.3 South Africa: Universal Access Gap (Access as measured by the
principal indicators on urban and rural areas in the Global Tracking
Framework for Transport—the Rapid Transit to Resident Ratio and the
Rural Access Index respectively, both normalized (Source Sustainable
Mobility for All. 2022. GRA in Action series South Africa’s Mobility
Report: Tracking Transport Sector Performance. Figure 4.1. South
Africa Universal Access gap, page 35. Washington, DC: Sustainable
Mobility for All, forthcoming. ISBN: 979-8-9859982-5-2. Licensed
under the Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0)

Fig. 12.A.1 South Africa—Country dashboard on transport and mobility

(Source Sustainable Mobility for All. 2020. Mobility Performance at a
Glance: Country Dashboards. Washington, DC: Sustainable Mobility for
All. ISBN: 978-1-7341533-9-2. Licensed under Creative Commons
Attribution CC BY 3.0 Washington DC, page 350-351.
https://www.sum4all.org/gra-tool/country-performance/snapshot)
List of Tables
Table 4.​1 The impact of data and new technologies on transport by big
data dimension

Table 7.​1 Global Risks Perception Survey 2020 Rankings

Table 8.​1 How the Sustainable Mobility for All partnership works

Table 9.​1 Global Tracking Framework for transport:​principal indicators

and aspirational targets

Table 9.​A.​1 List of supporting indicators

Table 10.​1 Catalogue of Policy Measures by toolboxes and thematic

areas

Table 10.​A.​1 Catalogue of Policy Measures toward Sustainable Mobility

Table 11.​A.​1 Country group thresholds

Table 11.​A.​2 Sample of an impact score measured against each policy

goal

Table 11.​A.​3 Sample of the relevance of a policy measure to a country's

goal
Table 11.​B.​1 Tagging indicators for market segment analysis

Table 12.​B.​1 South Africa’s prototype action plan

About the Authors
Dr. Nancy Vandycke is lead economic
advisor in the Infrastructure Global Practice
—Transport at the World Bank Group where
she manages a portfolio of award-winning
knowledge creation and business
development programs and partnerships.
She initiated and led a coalition of 56
international organizations and companies to
guide policymaker transport choice under
the Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All)
umbrella. She has advised policymakers on
sustainability economics and infrastructure
investments for the World Bank Group, and
the Center for Economic Policy Research. She
was a Professor of Economics at Georgetown University and the
London School of Economics, where she obtained her Ph.D. in
Economics.

Dr. José M. Viegas is the methodological

coordinator of an innovative approach for
improved decision making in transport and
associated tools—including the Global
Tracking Framework for Transport and
Catalogue of Policy Measures that are a part
of the Global Roadmap of Action—developed
under the Sustainable Mobility for All
(SuM4All) partnership. He was the Secretary-
General of the International Transport Forum
(ITF) at the Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development (OECD) from
2012 to 2017. In this capacity, Dr. Viegas led
programs of structural reform in transport
and brought ITF to the forefront of innovation in transport policy,
strongly increasing collaboration with both corporate and institutional
parts of the transport sector. ITF reports have become worldwide
references in their respective domains. Prior to joining the ITF, José
Viegas was Full Professor of Transportation at the University of Lisbon,
where he was the Head of the Research Unit on Transport
Infrastructure, Systems and Policy, as well as the National Director of
the Transport Systems Area of the MIT–Portugal program. He was the
coordinator of more than a dozen research projects for the European
Commission between 1995 and 2010, and a member of the High-Level
Advisory Group on Sustainable Mobility from 2015 to 2016 appointed
by then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
N. Vandycke, J. M. Viegas, Sustainable Mobility in a Fast-Changing World, Sustainable
Development Goals Series
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08961-9_1

1. Preface
Nancy Vandycke1 and José M. Viegas2
(1) Plouescat, France
(2) Lisbon, Portugal

José M. Viegas
Email: josemviegas@gmail.com

Our world is changing fast. As countries fundamentally reconfigure to

adapt to new realities, making the right policy and infrastructure
choices in transport and mobility has become more challenging than
ever. Transport (or transportation) plays a critical role in economic
development by enabling people and goods to reach their intended
destinations. Countries invest an estimated $1.4–$2.1 trillion per year
in transport infrastructure: roads, railways, waterways, airways, canals,
pipelines, and terminals.1 While these investments generate many
economic and social benefits, they are increasingly associated with
carbon emissions, air and noise pollution, traffic fatalities, system
inefficiencies, and social disparities.
For decades, the planning and design of countries’ transport
systems have been shaped by project-by-project considerations. Today,
transport systems are expected to serve long-term objectives of public
policy, including the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and
the Paris Climate Agreement. Ensuring that these long-term objectives
are achieved will require radical changes to the shape of transport
systems.
 Moreover, new forces are imposing a fundamental rethinking in the
way policy and investment decisions are made in transport, such as
making better use of data and modern technologies, adopting a more
inclusive and participatory governance approach, and responding to
growing social concerns about equity and equitable access to
transportation services. Together these factors are forcing a reset in the
way transport systems are planned and designed—and a reset in how
policy decisions are made.
As these dynamics are unfolding, many transport practitioners and
decision-makers have been looking for structured and coherent
guidance about ways to change the trajectory of transport and adapt to
this fast-evolving context. However, no discussion forum was available
to reflect on these ideas together. Also absent were authoritative
resources and instructional materials on the systemwide changes
taking place, much less a grounded framework to guide action.
“Sustainable Mobility in a Fast-Changing World: From Concept to
Action” examines the rationale for and details an innovative and
coherent approach for public decision-making to expedite the pace of
sustainable mobility.
This new adaptive approach rests on the definition of “sustainable
mobility,” an emerging standard that is increasingly accepted by the
international transport community.2 Sustainable mobility is defined as
the simultaneous achievement of four global goals: universal
(equitable) access, efficiency, safety, and green mobility. This approach
builds on a unique set of tools developed by the Sustainable Mobility for
All (SuM4all) Partnership—a coalition of 56 international organizations
and companies with a shared ambition to transform the future of
mobility—and incorporates references to the Global Mobility Report
2017,3 Catalogue of Policy Measures toward Sustainable Mobility,4 and
the Global Roadmap of Action toward Sustainable Mobility.5
This book brings together all these concepts and tools to articulate a
comprehensive approach for improved public decision-making in
transport. By design, adoption of this approach by country decision-
makers will ensure that policy and infrastructure choices in transport
become better aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement and support
the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
 This book aims to make this multilayered approach accessible to a
broad audience through a coherent narrative that articulates how the
concept of sustainable mobility was formed, operationalized, and
primed for action. Several chapters of this book were developed to train
the first cohort of more than 600 transport decision-makers from 140
countries in October 2021 in Washington, DC. The tools and approach
were also socialized in several international conferences and high-level
forums. This manuscript is the culmination of all these efforts.
But conceiving these tools is not enough; they need to be put into
the hands of decision-makers and public officials in ministries and
agencies, development banks, and practitioners and thought leaders in
academia for action. This book has been written for both transport
practitioners and broader audiences interested in transport and the
future of mobility and the Planet.
Part I: “The Urgent Need for a New Approach” comprises Chapters
2–6.
Chapter 2 “Key Trends Shaping the Future of Mobility” presents an
overview of the pressing needs and the key dynamics that are driving a
fundamental rethinking of how public decisions are made in transport.
Over the last decade, the world has changed and is changing
dramatically. Demand for mobility continues to rise. The SDGs and Paris
Climate Agreement have compelled countries to rethink their domestic
agendas in service of global targets and the well-being of the planet.
Data and modern technologies continue to offer possibilities but also
present new challenges to overcome. A new more open and inclusive
governance paradigm encourages a new model of decision-making,
which emphasizes more decentralization and greater citizen
engagement. Finally, equity and inclusion concerns take greater
significance in this new world. Applied to transport collectively, these
dynamics force a necessary departure in public decision-making from a
siloed, project-by-project approach to a new systemwide approach
centered on reaching higher-order goals for the well-being of the
planet.
Chapter 3 “From Sustainable Development Goals to Sustainable
Mobility” delves deeper into the impact of ambitious global goals set by
the SDGs and Paris Climate Agreement, and its implications for the
transport sector. In the absence of a transport-dedicated SDG, it became
essential to translate these international agreements into transport-
specific policy goals. The traditionally fragmented transport sector now
had a rallying cry and need for a safe and inclusive space to understand
the changes taking place to set a strategic path forward. Coalesced
under the SuM4All Partnership, the international transport community
came together around the concept of sustainable mobility and its four
defining global goals: universal access, efficiency, safety, and green
mobility.
Chapter 4 “The Power of Data and New Technologies” explores the
significance of advancements in the data and technology space for
transport. Data combined with artificial intelligence, if well leveraged,
could generate new insights for operating transportation systems,
enable better planning for future mobility needs, and incentivize
positive customer behavioral changes. Governments and researchers
can harvest data to generate much-needed insights for better policies
and investments’ outcomes, assuming data are available and effectively
used. Here, new collection and analytic technologies can help reduce
the cost of data generation and transform data into intelligence, that
countries can act on, and citizens can explore. How might new data
sharing partnerships between public and private actors help alleviate
some of these systemic challenges?
Chapter 5 “A New Governance Paradigm” explores a promising
global trend. Within and around national borders, the growing trend
toward more participatory governance and devolution continues to
have strong implications for policy-making in transport. Increasingly,
citizens and transport users are demanding more opportunities to
engage in local decision-making and to provide feedback on the
delivery of these services. National governments have in parallel been
adapting and working through various levels of devolution and sharing
governance roles and responsibilities with decentralized counterparts
representing municipalities and other mechanisms. With potential
promise and peril, transport planning has never been closer to its
service constituents.
Chapter 6 “Toward More Equitable and Inclusive Transport”
explores the crosscutting dynamic of equity and inclusion. Typically,
equity in transport systems is assessed by looking at one of the key
goals of mobility—access to transport services for people and goods to
reach their destination. Within the definition of sustainable mobility,
the policy goal of universal (equitable) access encompasses several
dimensions—urban, rural, and gender. The urban and rural
classifications represent horizontal equity of location, and gender
represents a piece of vertical equity, considering specific demographic
profiles of individuals. This is a dynamic that is linked closely to the
spirit of inclusion driving the SDGs but is a difficult thorny challenge.
Equity will require much diligence and active effort from public
decision-makers considering traditionally overlooked voices and
communities when it comes to mobility policy design, and
implementation.
Part II “A New Approach to Transport Policy-Making” shifts the
focus to a discussion around changing dynamics in transport and
follows with chapters on how international organizations and
companies coalesced under the Sustainable Mobility for All (SuM4All)
umbrella responded to a call for transformative action in transport.
Chapter 7 “A Systemic Approach to Transport Policy” outlines the
need for a systemwide approach to transport—an expansive approach
that departs from “infrastructure projects to implement” to integrate
risks and resilience considerations more fully in the transport decision-
making process. While systemwide thinking in transport is not new,
boundaries of the system have expanded and need to better reflect: (i)
interoperability between different modes of transportation, and how
this affects space and the environment; (ii) interdependencies with
other systems—energy–transport nexus, health, education; and (iii)
expanded risks and threats—extreme weather events linked to climate
change, information and telecommunication vulnerability and failures,
and pandemics.
Chapter 8 “Responding to Changing Dynamics with a Path Forward:
Sustainable Mobility for All” outlines the rationale for creating a new
global coalition in transport, with both technical credibility and global
reach, to develop an innovative approach to improve public decision-
making in transport. The approval of the SDGs and other higher level
goals highlighted limitations in the traditional approach used for public
decision-making in transport—siloed and structured by modes and
around multiple specialized organizations. This approach could not
facilitate the structural changes needed at the system level. In 2017, 30
international organizations and companies coalesced under the
Sustainable Mobility for All umbrella to steer transport in a new
direction.
Chapter 9 “Defining the Playing Field” establishes the determinants
of transport and sustainable mobility using data and global indicators.
The conversation on the SDGs and transport had long been dominated
by global advocacy and lacked the data, metrics, and methodology to
assess the gap between countries’ ambitions and realities. The SuM4All
Partnership bridged this gap by developing a Global Tracking
Framework for Transport (GTF)—the first-ever set of integrated
indicators and data classification system for transport, and a new
overarching indicator—the Global Sustainable Mobility composite
score, ranking all countries in the world by mobility performance.
Chapter 10 “Building a Global Policy Knowledge Collection” defines
the universe of policy instruments available to act on mobility and
transport. Countries were in search of structured policy guidance on
how to alter their trajectory in transport. As a precursor, they were
missing a fundamental global repository of knowledge on available
policy instruments. The Partnership embarked on an intense
crowdsourcing exercise across its membership in 2018—an inaugural
process in the international transport community—to list all the policy
measures and types of intervention that have been used by any country
in the world to make progress on universal access, efficiency, safety, and
green mobility. This effort led to the development of a unique and
global repository of policy knowledge on transport. The outcome of this
effort is the Catalogue of Policy Measures toward Sustainable Mobility,
containing over 190 tested and validated policy instruments.
Chapter 11 “Priming for Coherent Country Action” deals with the
nuanced process of converting data and global policy knowledge into a
country's action plan. The Partnership developed a series of tools—
including a selection algorithm and a conditional booster—to generate
prototype action plans (PAP) that are unique to countries based on
their mobility performance. These PAPs can subsequently be refined
and converted into country action plans that are aligned with a
country’s realities and priorities, through a granular policy-by-policy
analysis assessment and in-country calibration. A country action plan
(CAP) can be generated iteratively over time through the same process,
resulting in a country's roadmap of action toward sustainable mobility.
The book concludes with a closer look at how this novel approach
with its unique set of tools was applied in South Africa, lessons learned,
and the next frontier in transport.
Chapter 12 “From Goals to Action” offers insights into the
experience of applying the new sustainable mobility approach and tools
to a country. In 2020, South Africa was looking for ways to tackle
vulnerabilities in its transport system and accelerate progress toward
reaching the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate
Agreement. As the COVID-19 crisis hit, the pandemic further
emphasized the need to strengthen the resilience of transport systems
to shocks and risks. Reducing the vulnerability of those systems to
unexpected disruptions had to be more central to the approach, and the
tools were upgraded to reflect the importance of resilience. With these
initial additions, the tools were applied to the South African context to
diagnose the performance of its transport system, prioritize the most
critical issues, and select the most impactful policy measures to address
these challenges. This case study validated the power of data, more
precise comparative analysis, and overall importance of a coherent
framework of action to inform and guide policy and investment choices
for transport.
Chapter 13 “The Next Frontier of Mobility” reviews the main points
of the book, lessons learned, and thoughts about how to address the
next generation of issues on transport and mobility.

Notes
1. Lefevre Benoit, Leipziger, David, Raifman, Matthew. The Trillion-
dollar question: Tracking Public and Private Investment in Transport.
World Resources Institute: Working Paper, 1, 2014.

2. While the terms “Sustainable Transport” and “Sustainable Mobility”

are often used interchangeably, there are notable and important
distinctions. For example, “sustainable transport” is defined as “the
provision of services and infrastructure for the mobility of people
and goods— advancing economic and social development to benefit
today’s and future generations—in a manner that is safe,
 affordable, accessible, efficient, and resilient, while minimizing
carbon and other emissions and environmental impacts” (Source:
the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory Group on
Sustainable Transport, 2016. Mobilizing Sustainable Transport for
Development, page 10). Rodrigue (2020) offers a similar
definition,” Sustainable transportation is the capacity to support
the mobility needs of a society in a manner that is the least
damageable to the environment and does not impair the mobility
needs of future generations” (Source: Rodrigue, Jean-Paul. The
Geography of Transport Systems. New York: Routledge, 2020).
Distinct from both “sustainable transport” and “sustainable
transportation,” this book introduces and defines the term
“sustainable mobility,” as a broader concept that further defines
policy goals of universal access, efficiency, safety, and green
mobility and going beyond the transport-energy-climate nexus to
include important considerations such as land use planning. Since
2017, the concept of “sustainable mobility” is an emerging standard
that is increasingly accepted by the international transport
community to refer to the ambition in transport and the movement
of people and goods. Note that the concept covers all passenger and
freight market segments, considering each segment via modes of
transportation. This book covers air, water, and land transport,
which includes rail, road and off-road transport. Other modes of
transport that are not explored in this book include cable, pipeline,
and space.
3. Sustainable Mobility for All. 2017. Global Mobility Report 2017:
Tracking Sector Performance. Washington DC: Sustainable Mobility
for All. ISBN: 978-0-692-95670-0. License: Creative Commons
Attribution CC BY 3.0.

4. Sustainable Mobility for All. 2019. Catalogue of Policy Measures

Toward Sustainable Mobility. Washington DC: Sustainable Mobility
for All. ISBN: 978-1-7341533-8-5. License: Creative Commons
Attribution CC BY 3.0; and Sustainable Mobility for All. 2022.
Catalogue of Policy Measures 2.0 Toward Sustainable Mobility.
Washington DC, ISBN: 979-8-9860188-1-2. Licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0.
5. Sustainable Mobility for All. 2019. Global Roadmap of Action Toward
Sustainable Mobility. Washington DC: Sustainable Mobility for All.
ISBN: 978-1-7341533-0-9. License: Creative Commons Attribution
CC BY 3.0.

References
Lefevre, Benoit, David Leipziger, and Matthew Raifman. The Trillion-dollar question:
Tracking Public and Private Investment in Transport. Washington, DC: World
Resources Institute: Working Paper, 2014.

Rodrigue, Jean-Paul. The Geography of Transport Systems. New York: Routledge,

2020
[Crossref]

Sustainable Mobility for All. 2017. Global Mobility Report 2017: Tracking Sector
Performance. Washington, DC: Sustainable Mobility for All. ISBN: 978-0-692-95670-
0. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0.

Sustainable Mobility for All. 2019. Global Roadmap of Action Toward Sustainable
Mobility. Washington, DC: Sustainable Mobility for All. ISBN: 978-1-7341533-0-9.
License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0.

Sustainable Mobility for All. 2019. Catalogue of Policy Measures Toward Sustainable
Mobility. Washington, DC: Sustainable Mobility for All. ISBN: 978-1-7341533-8-5.
License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0.

Sustainable Mobility for All. 2022. Catalogue of Policy Measures 2.0 Toward
Sustainable Mobility. Washington, DC. ISBN: 979-8-9860188-1-2. Licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0.

United Nation’s Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Group on Sustainable

Transport. Mobilizing Sustainable Transport for Development—Analysis and Policy
Recommendations from the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Advisory
Group on Sustainable Transport. Page 7. New York: United Nations, 2016.
Part I
The Urgent Need for a New Approach
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
N. Vandycke, J. M. Viegas, Sustainable Mobility in a Fast-Changing World, Sustainable
Development Goals Series
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08961-9_2

2. Key Trends Shaping the Future of

Mobility
Nancy Vandycke1 and José M. Viegas2
(1) Plouescat, France
(2) Lisbon, Portugal

José M. Viegas
Email: josemviegas@gmail.com

Keywords Mobility crisis – Sustainable development goals – Paris

climate agreement – Climate change – Governance – Equity – Inclusion
– Gender – Data and technology – Digital revolution

Humanity faces existential challenges arising from a loss of balance at

the global level. Two of the most critical and visible symptoms of this
imbalance are climate change and loss of biodiversity. Within this
tenuous context, a serious transport and mobility crisis looms.
Transportation and the ability to move people and goods are an integral
part of daily life, but they also contribute heavily to environmental
degradation, rapid urbanization, and population growth.
This problem will not just go away. Hope is not a strategy. Three
billion cars are expected to operate on the road by 2050. Autonomous
or not, that is one car for every three people on the planet. Public
transport (such as buses, trains, and subways), on the other hand,
accounts for less than 20 percent of trips in cities around the world.
The maddening congestion visible in some cities will become worse. On
average, European drivers spend the equivalent of seven full days held
up in traffic jams each year. Annually, more than 1.3 million people
worldwide lose their lives in road crashes.
Continuing economic development and a growing world population
will translate into more demand for transport overall. Total transport
activity is expected to more than double by 2050 compared to 2015.
Passenger transport will increase 2.3-fold, while freight transport will
grow 2.6-fold. Transport emissions already account for a quarter of
energy-related climate emissions, and without action, are expected to
surge to by 2050. Freight’s absolute CO2 emissions will be 22 perccent
higher than 2015 by 2050 under current policies and its share of all
transport emissions will continue to grow, albeit slowly.1
Against these alarming odds is the stridently urgent call to action
for public decision-makers to make the right policy and infrastructure
choices in transport. Citizens are increasingly asking their national
governments to make decisions that matter not only for today’s
generation but also for future generations. Considerations like climate
change, the capacity of the planet to continue supporting the diversity
of life as we know it, social equity, and data intelligence have invited
themselves to the global development conversation, setting ambitions
even higher on what the right policy and infrastructure decisions are.
In this fast-changing environment, it is imperative to understand
dynamics that are shaping the future of transportation and mobility.
Fully considering these dynamics is essential to rethink the way we
design transport systems, globally. Policy-makers urgently need a set of
adaptive tools to assist them in making the right choices.

2.1 A New Political Ambition

In 2015, the General Assembly of the United Nations endorsed the 2030
Agenda, extending a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for
people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are 17
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call to
action by all countries, developed and developing, to achieve a common
ambition. The SDGs recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-
hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce
inequality, and spur economic growth—all while tackling climate
change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
 The same year, one hundred and ninety-six parties originally
negotiated and adopted the Climate Agreement at COP21 in Paris to
tackle climate change and its negative impacts. The Paris Climate
Agreement sets out a global framework to avoid climate change effects
by limiting global warming to well below 2 °C and pursuing efforts to
limit it to 1.5 °C. It also aims to strengthen countries’ ability to deal with
the impacts of climate change and support their efforts.
Shortly after the approval of these two major international
commitments, all the major multilateral development banks (MDBs)
unanimously declared the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement as
overarching frameworks to guide all future investment programs,
grants, and loans. On average, MDBs lend $20–25 billion per year to low
and middle-income countries to develop transport systems.2 Financing
infrastructure projects such as road, metro line or airport construction
represents one of the largest areas of financial assistance.
While all MDBs agreed on the importance of these new
international agreements, it was not immediately clear how to translate
them into grant/loan portfolios with a clear and compelling narrative.
The uncertainty was compounded for transport, as the sector was not
explicitly visible in the set of primary SDGs by name—although, in
descriptive text, the transport was recognized as an enabler to several
SDGs. As a result, it took several years for the international community
to articulate a clear narrative on the relevance of the transport sector to
global issues, such as sustainable development and climate change. In
contrast, some sectors like energy, and information and
communications technology (ICT), which had specifically named SDGs,
gained more visibility and immediate traction in countries for greater
public budget allocation and funding from bilateral donors and
development aid. Unfortunately, this shift came at the expense of the
transport agenda.
One thing that was immediately clear is that the global shift would
have a significant impact on international development assistance in
terms of volume and type of support. Traditionally, MDBs had been
financing ad hoc infrastructure projects. Those projects were selected
using standard cost–benefit analysis. This approach was dominated by
efficiency considerations, primarily time savings, and was not inclusive
or flexible enough to respond to the many broad goals embodied in the
SDGs, like road safety and carbon emissions reduction. With the
approval of the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, country
priorities and development assistance had to shift from seeking
infrastructure projects to implement to supporting better transport
systems that would help achieve high-level goals for the wellbeing of
humankind. The complexity of the task at hand made it obvious that
this effort could not be carried out by a single organization, and that a
collaborative approach was essential.

2.2 Hyper Digitalization (Data and Technology)

We are just at the beginning of a great digital revolution in the
transport sector. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), with a
growing role for real-world applications of advanced digital
technologies, including the internet of things (IoT), artificial
intelligence (AI), robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing,
cloud computing, nanotechnology, and more, is fundamentally changing
society.
Hyper digitalization is transforming the way we communicate,
learn, relate to one another, connect, and move. It has created a major
opportunity for transport and disrupted the status quo. An estimated
26.3 billion digital devices and connections are fully functional and
being used—this is already estimated to be more than three times the
number of the world’s inhabitants. As connectivity extends to transport
systems, it can lead to more equitable, efficient, and safer mobility, and
offer great opportunities for countries to reshape the way people,
goods, and services travel. In many urban areas, the use of smartphones
has catalyzed a move away from vehicle ownership and toward vehicle-
sharing, ride-hailing, and carpooling.
Data combined with artificial intelligence, if well leveraged, could
generate new insights for operating transport systems, plan for future
needs, and incentivize customer behavioral changes. The increasing
digitization of transport systems generates vast troves of data from
diverse supply sources—on-vehicle sensors, roadside sensors, cameras,
and smartphones, which bridge demand and supply sources—and
purely demand-side sources—employment location, banking, and other
services.
 Governments, researchers, and planners can harvest data to
generate much-needed insights for smarter policies, and to boost
investments outcomes, assuming data are available and properly used.
New collection and analytic technologies can help reduce the cost of
data generation and better transform data into actionable information,
which countries and cities can act on.
Such actions will help resolve a huge data challenge in developing
countries. A third of people in the world do not have access to the
internet,3 in many cases systematically excluded from enjoying the
benefits of our new hyper digitized world. According to the report,
“Sustainable Mobility: Policy Making for Data Sharing”,4 “an estimated
35 percent of the world’s largest cities and 92 percent of the largest
low- and middle-income cities do not have complete transportation
maps. The overall level of digitalization of transportation in developing
countries remains relatively low.” Transportation maps are a ripple
effect of the broader digital divide.
Fueled by advanced technologies and new mobility solutions, the
global market for intelligent mobility is projected to reach US$150
billion in the next five years.5 Addressing privacy, cybersecurity,
competition, and other issues are critical to resolve and help unleash
the full potential of new data sources, and thus, must be included from
the start in the design of new data systems. The benefits outweigh the
risks.

2.3 A New Governance Paradigm

Traditionally, public decisions on transport systems have been made by
institutions at the national level. We have seen growing pressure from
local authorities to take part in those decisions, or even be directly
empowered to make those decisions. This has created tension between
those who have traditionally made transport decisions on behalf of all
citizens and those who feel empowered by local citizens to make
decisions for the benefit of their local community.
The tensions between national and local authorities are also visible
in prevailing discussions on climate change. Seventy percent of carbon
emissions come from cities. Although targets were set at the national
level in the Paris climate agreement, a major impact on emissions
reduction will come through policy and infrastructure changes at the
city level. Local authorities should be empowered to access funding—
including those from development banks—and make decisions
unencumbered by national authorities, preferably acting within a
previously defined national financial framework. As another tension
illustrates, national decisions to build or expand airports—in spite of
their effects on employment and local activity—have often exacerbated
local conflicts due to required land, increased ground traffic, and
aircraft noise. In some cases, national decisions had to be overturned
because of the outpouring of local discontent as in the case of Notre-
Dame-des-Landes in France.6
To add to this complexity, citizens are increasingly demanding more
transparency, accountability, and participation in the public decision-
making process from their governments and representatives. “Build
with, not for” has become the rallying cry of the we-government.7 The
global push for more citizen engagement and open government has led
to growing expectations for a participatory approach to public decision-
making in all spheres of society, including the transport sector as it
affects the daily lives of citizens.

2.4 Equity and Inclusion

Equity and inclusion are central values of the SDGs. Leaving no one
behind lies at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development. This principle is mentioned seven times in the 2030
Agenda on Sustainable Development itself and has been a recurring
theme in documents, pledges, call to actions, interventions, and
statements delivered since by countries, the UN, and civil society. A
clear commitment to inclusion is made in the text of the 2030 Agenda
as member states pledged to leave no one behind, while at the same
time recognizing that the dignity of a human being is fundamental.
Furthermore, member states pledged that goals and targets be met for
all nations, peoples, and societies committing to also reach those
furthest behind.
In reality, the objective of equity and inclusion is unreachable
without strong political commitment and dedicated policies. Transport
investment decisions, in particular, are driven by market forces, which
generally do not distribute transportation services and infrastructure
equitably, if left to their own devices. For example, public transport is
often distributed unevenly across locations, and poorer areas often lag
in rail and bus services capacity and quality. Transport supply
measures create asymmetries of access, leading to gaps in access. While
rural and urban settings with different population densities require
different public transport solutions to meet efficiency targets, it is
possible to achieve similar levels of accessibility across these settings.
But a spatial gap of access—horizontal equity—is not the only
problem; differences also exist in needs among specific types of users of
transportation that are not considered or met—vertical equity gaps.
For example, female mobility patterns are known to be different from
those of men. Women typically walk longer distances than men and
make frequent, shorter trips with more stops to combine multiple
tasks. Men, by contrast, tend to follow more direct and linear patterns.8
Females engage in more non-work-related travel than males and are
more likely to be accompanied by children or elderly relatives. They are
also more reliant on public transport. Transport influences their quality
of life as the primary user of public transport, but also constrains it, for
example, through poor safety in public transport, discrimination in
labor force participation and leadership positions, and vehicle
ownership. Yet in most countries, transport infrastructure and services
cater primarily to the needs of commuters who travel straight from
their home to the central business district and back—an approach that
largely overlooks the mobility needs and travel patterns of women. The
gender lens of equity and inclusion is just the start, and much work
needs to be done to better understand which communities and groups
are traditionally underserved, and more importantly, why they are
systematically being ignored.
Both horizontal and vertical gaps exacerbate perceptions of
inequality. These gaps at times spill over as larger demonstrations of
social unrest. In the future, distributional considerations are likely to
become more prominent in political debates, will influence policy
design and planning, and will demand policy and investment
corrections from public stakeholders. Defining and operationalizing
these principles will remain an important priority. Transport is
obligated to provide access across both horizontal dimensions like
geographical areas and urban and rural settlement patterns, and to
vertical dimensions like income groups, gender, age, and disability
status.
Each of these four key dynamics has enormous implications for the
future of transport systems. Given their importance, the remaining
chapters in Part I will provide a deeper treatise of these individual
dynamics and their significance for the future of the planet and
mobility.

Notes
1. International Transport Forum. Transport Outlook Report 2021.
Paris: OECD/ITF, 2021, page 3.

2. The lending amount refers to the total commitment for transport

from 8 multilateral development banks (African Development
Bank; Asian Development Bank; CAF-Development Bank of Latin
America; European Bank for Reconstruction and Development;
European Investment Bank; Inter-American Development Bank;
Islamic Development Bank; and World Bank). Source: Asian
Development Bank. Progress Report (2016–18) of the MDB Working
Group on Sustainable Transport. Manila: ADB, 2019, 3. https://​
www.​adb.​org/​documents/​progress-report-2016-2018-mdb-wg-
sustainable-transport.

3. Q1 2021 estimate; https://​www.​internetworldsta​ts.​com/​stats.​htm.

4. Sustainable Mobility for All. 2021. GRA in Action Series: Sustainable

Mobility: Policy Making for Data Sharing. Washington DC:
Sustainable Mobility for All. ISBN: 979-8-9859982-0-7. Page 10.
License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0.

5. Markets And Markets, Smart Transportation Market. https://​www.​

marketsandmarket​s.​com/​Market-Reports/​smart-transportation-
market-692.​html.

6. https://​www.​theguardian.​com/​world/​2018/​jan/​17/​france-
abandons-plan-for-580m-airport-in-west-of-country.
7. Stepanek, M. (2015). Building With, Not For. Stanford Social
Innovation Review. https://​doi.​org/​10.​48558/​KETX-M760.

8. Legovini, Arianna and al, 2022. All too often in Transport, women
are an afterthought. Washington, DC: World Bank Transport for
Development, blog. https://​blogs.​worldbank.​org/​transport/​all-too-
often-transport-women-are-afterthought.

References
Asian Development Bank, 2019. Progress Report (2016–18) of the MDB Working Group
on Sustainable Transport. Metro Manila, Philippines: Asian Development Bank, 2019.

International Transport Forum. Transport Outlook Report 2021. Paris: OECD

Publishing, 2021.

Legovini, Arianna and al, 2022. All too often in Transport, women are an afterthought.
Washington, DC: World Bank Transport for Development, blog.

Markets And Markets, Smart Transportation Market. Magarpatta SEZ, Hadapsar, Pune,
India: MarketsandMarkets Research Private Ltd, 2021.

Stepanek, Maria, 2015. Building with, not for. Stanford Social Innovation Review: June
9, 2015.

Sustainable Mobility for All. 2021. GRA in Action Series: Sustainable Mobility: Policy
Making for Data Sharing. Washington, DC: Sustainable Mobility for All. ISBN: 979-8-
9859982-0-7. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
N. Vandycke, J. M. Viegas, Sustainable Mobility in a Fast-Changing World, Sustainable
Development Goals Series
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08961-9_3

3. From Sustainable Development Goals

to Sustainable Mobility
Nancy Vandycke1 and José M. Viegas2
(1) Plouescat, France
(2) Lisbon, Portugal

Keywords Sustainable Development Goals – Paris Climate Agreement

– Sustainable development – Climate change – Sustainable mobility –
Economic benefits – Universal access – Efficiency – Safety – Green
mobility – Air pollution – Noise pollution

3.1 Setting the Ambition High for the Well-Being of

Humankind
More than 190 countries signed two prominent and ambitious
international agreements in 2015; the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, and the Paris agreement on climate change. They both
represent internationally agreed upon, universal visions for the globe.
Both frameworks address urgent global problems of sustainability in
development and commit a coordinated universal response to respond
to them.1
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development encompasses 17
SDGs, 169 targets, and a declaration text articulating the principles of
integration, universality, transformation, and a global partnership.2
Sustainable development seeks to meet the needs of people living today
without compromising the needs of future generations, while balancing
social, economic, and environmental considerations. The 17 SDGs
include targets for eradicating poverty; ensuring health, energy, and
food security; reducing inequality; protecting ecosystems; pursuing
sustainable cities and economies, and a goal for climate action. They
aim to provide a social foundation for humanity while ensuring that
human development takes place within Earth’s biophysical boundaries.
The Paris Climate Agreement is a legally binding international
treaty on climate change.1 It was adopted by 196 parties at the 21st
Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris, on 12 December 2015, and
entered into force on 4 November 2016. Its goal is to limit global
warming to well below 2 °C, preferably to 1.5 °C, compared to pre-
industrial levels. Countries aim to reach global peaking of greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions as soon as possible to achieve a climate-neutral
world by midcentury. The Paris Agreement is a landmark in the
multilateral climate change process because, for the first time, a
binding agreement brought all nations into a common cause to
undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its
effects.
The implementation of the SDGs and Paris Agreement is based on a
bottom-up process, meaning countries identify and subsequently act
and report on their own priorities, needs, and ambitions.1 This global
response is composed of particular and voluntary national responses
that might come together to fulfill this global ambition. Thus, the Paris
Agreement relies on country-generated intended nationally determined
contributions (INDCs) becoming more ambitious over time; the SDGs
rely on ambitious national responses to the overall implementation of
this agenda, with progress tracked at yearly meetings of a new high-
level political forum.

3.2 Linking Transport with the SDG Framework

The economic and social benefits of transport infrastructure and
services are well recognized.3 Transport enables the distribution of
goods and services within and between countries and facilitates access
to schools, health services, and jobs. For many countries around the
world, a road can make a difference between surviving and thriving. For
example, farmers could not think beyond subsistence farming before
roads were built because they had no means to bring their crops to the
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 — Hawkins, cette extériorisation est une science plus grande et
plus noble que nous ne l’avions imaginé et nous avons accompli une
merveille sans nous en douter ; je m’en rends compte clairement
maintenant. Tout individu est soumis à la loi de l’hérédité et se
compose d’atomes et de molécules ancestrales ; notre
extériorisation doit être incomplète, car nous n’avons remonté qu’au
commencement du XIXe siècle.
— Je ne comprends pas, colonel, s’écria Hawkins terrorisé par
l’attitude et les paroles mystérieuses du duc.
— Eh bien ! oui, pour moi nous avons extériorisé l’aïeul du bandit
que nous recherchons.
— Oh ! non, ne dites pas cela, c’est horrible.
— Pourtant, Hawkins, j’en suis sûr. Voyez les faits. Ce fantôme
est Anglais, il parle très correctement, il est artiste, a des manières
de gentleman. Je ne vois pas votre cowboy dans tout cela, qu’en
dites-vous ?
— Rossmore, c’est atroce, je ne peux pas y penser.
— Nous n’avons pas rappelé à la vie un seul atome de cet
homme, nous n’avons ressuscité que ses habits.
— Colonel, vous voulez dire que…
Le colonel frappa la table de son poing, d’un geste emphatique,
et continua :
— Je veux dire que l’extériorisation était prématurée, que le
bandit nous a échappé et que nous ne tenons que son diable
d’aïeul.
Il se leva et arpenta la pièce avec fureur.
— Quelle amère déception, gémissait Hawkins.
— Je le sais, je le sais, mon cher sénateur, et personne n’en est
plus affecté que moi. Il faut bien nous soumettre à l’évidence. Dieu
sait que j’ai besoin d’argent, cependant je ne suis pas assez
miséreux et assez déchu, pour prétendre infliger un châtiment à un
homme pour un crime que ses descendants ont commis.
 — Pourtant, colonel, supplia Hawkins, réfléchissez, pesez bien
notre situation ; vous savez que c’est notre seule chance d’avoir de
l’argent ; d’ailleurs, la Bible ne nous dit-elle pas que les crimes des
aïeux et bisaïeux sont expiés par leurs descendants jusqu’à la
quatrième génération ? — nous devons tirer un enseignement de ce
sage précepte et nous pouvons au besoin l’adapter à notre cause.
Le colonel était frappé de la justesse de cette logique. Il réfléchit,
l’air pensif, tout en marchant de long en large.
— Il y a du vrai dans ce que vous dites et, quoiqu’il semble cruel
du faire expier à un pauvre vieux diable le crime d’un de ses
descendants, la justice exige que nous lui livrions cet homme.
— C’est mon avis, dit Hawkins tout guilleret, je le livrerais à la
justice si les molécules de mille de ses ancêtres se trouvaient
concentrées en son seul individu.
— C’est bien le cas présent, répondit Sellers avec un
grognement, notre individu est précisément un composé de
molécules de plusieurs ancêtres. En lui, on retrouve des atomes de
prêtres, de soldats, de croisés, de poètes, de douces et tendres
femmes, des atomes de toutes les professions qui ont existé depuis
des siècles et disparu de notre planète ; aujourd’hui, par un effort de
notre volonté, nous tirons ces atomes de leur sainte retraite et nous
rendons responsable du pillage d’une banque un descendant de ces
divers personnages : c’est une injustice flagrante.
— Oh ! colonel, ne parlez pas ainsi, je me sens épouvanté et
honteux du rôle que je me suis proposé de…
— Attendez, j’ai trouvé un moyen.
— Quoi, tout espoir n’est pas perdu ? Parlez vite, je meurs
d’impatience.
— C’est bien simple, un enfant l’aurait trouvé. Tout a bien marché
jusqu’à présent, je n’ai pas à me plaindre. Puisque j’ai pu amener
mon individu jusqu’au commencement du siècle, pourquoi ne
continuerais-je pas et ne l’extérioriserais-je pas jusqu’à nos jours ?
 — Dieu ! je n’y avais pas pensé, s’écria Hawkins, de nouveau
transporté. C’est la seule chose à faire. Quel génie vous êtes…!
Perdra-t-il alors le bras qu’il a de trop ?
— Certainement.
— Et son accent anglais ?
— Complètement, il prendra l’accent de Cherokee.
— Colonel, peut-être avouera-t-il le vol de la banque.
— Ce vol de la banque… Que cela. Vous oubliez qu’il sera
entièrement soumis à ma volonté : je lui ferai confesser tous les
crimes qu’il a commis et soyez convaincu qu’il en a plus de mille sur
la conscience. Saisissez-vous ?
— Non, pas tout à fait.
— Toutes les récompenses seront pour nous.
— Admirable conception ! Je n’ai jamais rencontré un esprit
comme le vôtre, capable d’embrasser d’un seul coup d’œil toutes les
particularités qui se rattachent à une idée générale.
— C’est pourtant bien facile, je vous assure… Lorsque j’ai épuisé
un sujet, le suivant en découle tout naturellement et ainsi de suite.
Nous n’aurons donc qu’à recueillir toutes les récompenses. Voilà un
fameux revenu viager, Hawkins ! Et plus sûr que d’autres, car il est
indestructible.
— C’est vrai, tout cela paraît très vraisemblable.
— Paraît ? Vous êtes bien bon ! On ne niera pas que je ne sois
un financier de premier ordre et je ne me vante pas en affirmant que
cette opération surpasse toutes les autres. Elle mérite un brevet.
— Le croyez-vous réellement ?
— Parfaitement.
— Oh ! colonel, que la pauvreté est donc pénible, elle paralyse
les plus grandes aspirations ! Nous devrions réaliser tout de suite
une partie de notre individu, le détailler. Je ne serais pas d’avis de le
vendre en gros, seulement quelques morceaux… Assez pour…
 — Que vous êtes nerveux et agité, mon ami. C’est un manque
d’expérience de votre part, mon garçon ; lorsque vous serez rompu,
comme moi, aux affaires, vous changerez, allez. Regardez-moi, mes
yeux sont-ils dilatés ? Tâtez mon pouls, il ne bat pas plus vite que
pendant mon sommeil. Et cependant, je vois défiler, devant mon
esprit calme et impassible, une procession de personnages qui
rendraient fous tous les financiers. C’est en restant maître de soi, en
envisageant une situation sous toutes ses faces qu’un homme voit
nettement le parti qu’il peut en tirer. Tout à l’heure, voyez-vous, vous
avez agi comme un novice, trop pressé d’obtenir un succès.
Écoutez-moi, votre désir à vous est de vendre notre homme, argent
comptant. Eh bien ! j’ai une tout autre idée, devinez ?
— Je ne sais pas, quelle est-elle ?
— Le conserver, au contraire.
— Vraiment, je n’aurais jamais pensé à cela.
— Parce que vous n’êtes pas né financier. Admettons qu’il ait
commis un millier de crimes, certainement c’est une estimation des
plus modestes, car, à le voir, on peut lui en attribuer un million. Pour
ne pas exagérer, prenons le chiffre de cinq mille dollars de
récompense par crime, cela nous donne au bas mot combien ? Cinq
millions de livres.
— Attendez que je reprenne haleine.
— C’est une rente perpétuelle, car un homme de sa trempe
continuera à commettre ses crimes et à nous rapporter des primes.
— Je suis positivement ahuri.
— Ça ne fait rien. Maintenant que les choses sont mises au
point, restez tranquille. Je préviendrai la Compagnie et livrerai la
marchandise en temps opportun ; confiez-moi l’affaire, vous ne
doutez pas du mon talent pour la mener à bien ?
— Certainement pas, j’ai une confiance absolue.
— Très bien, chaque chose à son temps. Nous autres, vieux
collaborateurs, nous agissons méthodiquement, pas d’à-coups avec
nous. Alors, maintenant, qu’avons-nous à faire ? Simplement à
continuer l’extériorisation pour l’amener à notre époque. Je vais
commencer de suite. Je crois que…
— Lord Rossmore ! Je parie cent contre un que vous ne l’avez
pas enfermé et qu’il s’est sauvé !
— Calmez-vous, ne vous mettez pas martel en tête pour cela.
— Eh bien ! et pourquoi ne pourrait-il pas s’échapper ?
— Qu’il s’échappe s’il veut, qu’est-ce que cela fait ?
— Ma foi, je considérerais sa fuite comme un malheur
irréparable.
— Mais, mon cher ami, souvenez-vous donc de ceci : une fois
que je le tiens, c’est fini. Il peut aller et venir librement, je puis
l’amener et par le seul effort de la volonté.
— Ah ! je vous assure que je suis heureux de l’apprendre.
— Oui, je lui donnerai à faire tous les tableaux qu’il voudra et
nous le mettrons à l’aise le plus possible. Il est parfaitement inutile
de le gêner le moins du monde. J’espère l’amener facilement à
rester tranquille, et pourtant à le voir ainsi mou et sans
consistance… je me demande d’où il vient.
— Comment, que voulez-vous dire ?
Pour toute réponse le duc regarda le ciel comme pour
l’interroger. Hawkins tressaillit, réfléchit un moment et, secouant la
tête tristement, il regarda le bout de ses pieds.
— Que voulez-vous dire ?
— Mon Dieu, je ne sais pas, mais vous pouvez constater vous-
même qu’il n’a pas l’air de regretter son état primitif.
— C’est vrai, vous avez raison.
— Au fond, nous lui avons fait beaucoup de bien, mais je crois
que nous apprendrons beaucoup de choses en allant
progressivement sans trop brusquer le mouvement.
— Je me demande le temps qu’il faudra pour compléter son
extériorisation et l’amener à notre époque.
 — Je voudrais bien le savoir moi aussi, mais je ne m’en doute
pas. J’ignore totalement ce détail, car je n’ai jamais extériorisé un
individu en passant par toutes les conditions qu’il a traversées
depuis son état d’ancêtre jusqu’à celui de descendant. Mais vous
verrez, je m’en tirerai bien.
— Rossmore ! appela une voix.
— Oui, ma chérie, nous sommes dans le laboratoire ; Hawkins
est ici, venez. Quant à vous, Hawkins, n’oubliez pas qu’il est pour
toute la famille un individu vivant en chair et en os… Voilà ma femme
qui entre…
— Ne vous dérangez pas, je n’entre pas. Je voulais seulement
savoir qui peint à côté.
— Oh ! c’est un jeune artiste, un jeune Anglais, Tracy, très bien
doué ; il est élève de Hans Christian Andersen, et va restaurer nos
chefs-d’œuvre italiens. Vous avez causé avec lui ?
— Je ne lui ai dit qu’un mot. Je suis entrée sans savoir qu’il y
avait quelqu’un. J’ai voulu être polie, je lui ai offert un biscuit
(clignement d’yeux de Sellers à Hawkins), mais il a refusé (seconde
œillade de Sellers) ; alors je lui ai apporté des pommes ; il en a
mangé deux.
— Quoi !…
Le colonel sauta jusqu’au plafond et retomba ahuri sur ses pieds.
Lady Rossmore, frappée de stupeur, contemplait alternativement
le sénateur de Cherokee et son mari.
— Qu’avez-vous donc, Mulberry ? demanda-t-elle.
Il ne répondit pas d’abord et fit semblant, très affairé, de chercher
quelque chose sous sa chaise.
— Ah ! le voilà, dit-il, c’est un clou.
— Tout cela pour un clou ? répondit sa femme d’un ton aigre de
mauvaise humeur mal déguisée, voilà bien des embarras pour un
pauvre petit clou ! Vraiment vous auriez pu vous dispenser de me
causer une pareille émotion. Et tournant les talons, elle prit la porte
et s’en alla.
 Lorsqu’elle fut assez éloignée pour ne rien entendre, le colonel
dit d’une voix brisée :
— Allons nous rendre compte par nos propres yeux.
— C’est une erreur, c’est impossible autrement.
Ils descendirent rapidement et regardèrent par le trou de la
serrure.
— Il mange, murmura Sellers d’un air désolé. Quel horrible
spectacle, Hawkins. C’est affreux. Emmenez-moi. Je ne puis
supporter cette horrible vision.
Ils regardèrent le laboratoire aussi émus l’un que l’autre.
 CHAPITRE XX

Tracy travaillait lentement, car son esprit était ailleurs ; beaucoup

de pensées diverses l’assaillaient. Soudain, un éclair sembla jaillir
de ses yeux. Il crut qu’il avait trouvé la clef de l’énigme. J’y suis,
pensa-t-il enfin, je crois comprendre maintenant. Cet homme n’a pas
son bon sens ; il divague sur deux ou trois points : sans cela
comment expliquer cette série de bizarreries ? Des affreux chromos
qu’il prend pour des œuvres de grands maîtres, ces horribles
portraits qui, soi-disant, représentent des Rossmore, les armoiries
grotesques, le nom pompeux de Rossmore Towers qu’il donne à sa
misérable bicoque ! Il affirme qu’il attendait ma visite. Comment
pouvait-il m’attendre, moi, Lord Berkeley ? Il sait bien par les
journaux que ce personnage est mort dans l’incendie du New
Gadsby.
La vérité est qu’il ne sait pas du tout qui il attendait ; ses paroles
me prouvent qu’il n’attendait ni un Anglais ni un artiste et malgré cela
ma venue le satisfait. Il paraît content de moi ; au fond, sa tête
déménage un peu, pour ne pas dire tout à fait. Le pauvre vieux, il est
intéressant à observer, tout de même, comme le sont tous les
déséquilibrés. J’espère que mon travail lui plaira ; j’aimerais le voir
tous les jours et l’étudier de près. Et quand j’écrirai à mon père…
Ah ! n’y pensons pas, cela me fait mal.
Quelqu’un vient… Remettons-nous au travail. C’est encore mon
vieux bonhomme ; il a l’air agité. Peut-être mes habits lui semblent-
ils suspects. (Au fond ils le sont, pour un peintre). Si ma conscience
me permettait de les changer, mais c’est impossible. Pourquoi diable
gesticule-t-il avec ses bras ? Il a l’air de faire des passes avec ses
mains pour me suggestionner. Il n’y aurait rien d’impossible…
Le colonel pensait en lui-même : Mes passes lui produisent de
l’effet, je le vois bien. Là, c’est assez pour une fois ; il n’est pas
encore très solide et je pourrais le désagréger. Posons-lui deux ou
trois questions insidieuses, nous verrons bien qui il est et d’où il
vient.
Il s’approcha et lui dit doucement :
— Je ne veux pas vous déranger, monsieur Tracy, mais
seulement regarder votre travail. Ah ! c’est beau, très beau, vous
êtes un véritable artiste et votre œuvre va ravir ma fille. Puis-je
m’asseoir près de vous ?
— Mais comment donc, avec plaisir.
— Cela ne vous dérange pas ? votre inspiration n’en souffrira
pas ?
Tracy se mit à rire et répondit qu’il n’était pas éthéré à ce point.
Le colonel lui posa une grande quantité de questions,
particulièrement choisies, qui parurent étranges à Tracy ; il y répondit
néanmoins d’une manière satisfaisante, car le colonel se dit avec
orgueil :
— Jusqu’à présent, cela va bien. Il est solide, très solide, on le
dirait vivant. C’est curieux, il me semble que je le pétrifierai
facilement.
Après une petite pause, il lui demanda avec mystère :
— Préférez-vous être ici ou là-bas ?
— Où, là-bas ?
— Là-bas, d’où vous venez.
Tracy pensa immédiatement à sa pension et répondit sans
hésitation :
— Oh ! sans aucun doute, j’aime mieux être ici.
 Le colonel ému se dit : Il n’y a pas d’erreur, me voilà fixé sur la
provenance de ce pauvre diable. Eh bien ! je suis content de l’avoir
tiré de là.
Il suivait le pinceau de l’œil et pensa en même temps : Eh bien !
cela me dédommage de mon échec avec ce pauvre Lord Berkeley ;
il a dû prendre une autre direction, celui-là… et ma foi, tant mieux
pour lui.
Sally Sellers rentrait plus jolie que jamais. Son père lui présenta
Tracy. Tous deux éprouvèrent le coup de foudre, sans s’en rendre
compte, peut-être. Le jeune Anglais pensa en lui-même
irrévérencieusement : Peut-être n’est-il pas aussi fou, après tout !
Sally s’assit près de Tracy et s’intéressa à son travail, ce qui lui fit
plaisir et lui montra que la jeune fille était intelligente et avait des
goûts artistiques. Sellers, très désireux de faire part de ses
impressions à Hawkins, s’en alla, disant que si les jeunes artistes
pouvaient se passer de lui, il serait bien aise de vaquer à ses
occupations.
Il est un peu excentrique, mais rien de plus, pensa Tracy, et il se
reprocha d’avoir commis un jugement téméraire à son endroit sans
lui avoir donné le temps de se montrer sous son jour véritable.
L’étranger se sentit bien vite à l’aise et la conversation prit un tour
charmant. La jeune fille américaine possède des qualités de grande
valeur. La simplicité, la droiture et l’honnêteté ; elle est au-dessus
des conventions et des banalités mondaines ; aussi son attitude et
ses manières reçoivent-elles une aisance absolue et l’on se sent à
l’aise immédiatement sans savoir pourquoi. Cette nouvelle
connaissance, cette amitié fit des progrès rapides ; la preuve en est
qu’au bout d’une demi-heure ni l’un ni l’autre ne pensait plus aux
habits étranges de Tracy.
Gwendolen semblait ne plus se choquer de cet accoutrement,
mais Tracy resta persuadé qu’elle cachait son jeu par amabilité. Il se
sentit très gêné lorsque la jeune fille l’invita à dîner. Il ne pouvait
accepter dans cet accoutrement et cependant depuis qu’il avait
trouvé un intérêt dans l’existence, il en voulait à ses habits de
l’obliger à refuser cette invitation. Il partit pourtant le cœur joyeux en
lisant un regret dans les yeux de Gwendolen.
Où se dirigea-t-il ? Tout droit vers un magasin d’habillement où il
choisit un complet aussi élégant que possible pour un Anglais ; tout
en le choisissant il pensait :
Je sais que j’ai tort, pourtant je serais blâmable de ne pas
l’acheter et deux fautes qui s’ajoutent n’engendrent pas une bonne
action.
Cette réflexion lui rendit le cœur plus léger. Le lecteur appréciera
la valeur de cette réflexion et la jugera à son propre point de vue.
Le vieux ménage se montra inquiet de l’attitude distraite et du
silence de Gwendolen pendant le dîner. S’ils avaient tant soit peu
observé, ils auraient remarqué que son visage s’éclairait lorsque la
conversation roulait sur l’artiste, sur son travail. Mais ils n’y prêtèrent
aucune attention et virent seulement que sa physionomie
s’assombrissait par moments ; ils se demandèrent si elle était
souffrante ou si elle avait éprouvé une déception à propos de ses
toilettes. Sa mère lui offrit divers médicaments fortifiants, son père lui
proposa du vin vieux, quoiqu’il fût dans son district à la tête de la
ligue antialcoolique, mais elle repoussa aimablement toutes les
attentions délicates.
Lorsqu’au moment de monter se coucher, la famille se sépara, la
jeune fille choisit un pinceau entre tous en se disant : C’est celui qu’il
a le plus employé.
Le lendemain, Tracy sortit tout pimpant dans son nouveau
complet, un œillet à la boutonnière, don quotidien de Puss. Rêvant à
l’image de Gwendolen, il travailla à ses tableaux sans relâche, mais
presque inconsciemment ; il produisit merveilles sur merveilles, il
ajouta plusieurs accessoires variés aux portraits de ses associés qui
poussèrent des acclamations de joie et d’admiration.
De son côté, Gwendolen perdit toute sa matinée ; elle s’était dit
que Tracy viendrait et, à chaque instant, elle descendait au salon
mettre les pinceaux en ordre, en réalité voir s’il était arrivé. En
remontant chez elle, elle constata avec chagrin que sa confection de
toilette allait en dépit du bon sens. Elle avait mis tous ses soins et
son imagination à composer une toilette suggestive, qu’elle
confectionnait précisément en ce moment ; mais distraite comme
elle l’était, elle ne fit que des bêtises et gâcha son ouvrage.
Lorsqu’elle s’en aperçut, elle en comprit la cause et cessa de
travailler. N’était-ce pas pour elle un présage charmant ? Elle
descendit au salon, s’y installa et attendit…
Après le déjeuner elle attendit encore ; une grande heure passa,
mais son cœur battit violemment : elle l’avait aperçu.
Elle remonta chez elle précipitamment, comptant qu’on lui
demanderait de chercher le pinceau égaré… elle savait bien où…
En effet, au bout d’un moment, lorsque tout le monde eut
vainement cherché le pinceau, on la pria de descendre ; elle fureta
partout et ne le retrouva que lorsque les autres furent allés voir s’ils
le découvriraient ailleurs, à la cuisine, voire même au bûcher.
Elle tendit le pinceau à Tracy, et s’excusa de n’avoir pas tout
préparé pour lui ; elle ne comptait pas absolument sur sa visite, dit-
elle. Bref, elle s’embrouilla dans sa phrase et dissimula mal son
mensonge. De son côté, Tracy, honteux et confus, pensait :
Je savais bien que mon impatience m’amènerait ici plus tôt que
je n’aurais dû et trahirait mon sentiment. C’est précisément ce qui
est arrivé ; elle l’a compris et se moque de moi, bien entendu. Le
cœur de Gwendolen était partagé entre la satisfaction et le
mécontentement, satisfaction de lui voir un nouveau complet, mais
mécontentement de l’œillet à la boutonnière. L’œillet d’hier lui avait
été indifférent, mais celui d’aujourd’hui la froissait ; elle aurait bien
voulu en connaître l’histoire et savoir que cette fleur ne cachait pas
un amour fâcheux ? mais comment se renseigner : Elle esquissa
pourtant une tentative.
— Quel que soit l’âge d’un homme, dit-elle, il peut toujours se
rajeunir de quelques années en mettant une fleur vive à sa
boutonnière ; c’est une remarque que j’ai faite souvent. Est-ce pour
cela que le sexe fort aime les fleurs à la boutonnière ?
 — Je ne le crois pas ; la raison me paraît cependant plausible.
J’avoue que je n’y avais jamais songé.
— Vous m’avez l’air de préférer les œillets : est-ce pour leur
forme ou pour leur teinte ?
— Oh ! non, ni pour l’un, ni pour l’autre, répondit-il simplement, on
me les donne.
On les lui donne, se dit-elle en regardant l’œillet de travers. Qui
est-ce et comment est-elle ? La fleur lui fit l’effet d’un ennemi
dangereux, irritant pour son regard et néfaste pour sa tranquillité. Je
me demande s’il tient à elle, pensa-t-elle avec chagrin.
 CHAPITRE XXI

Elle avait tout mis en ordre et n’avait plus de prétexte pour rester.
Elle annonça alors qu’elle partait et le pria de sonner un
domestique, s’il lui manquait quoique chose ; elle s’en alla à contre-
cœur, laissant derrière elle un autre regret, car avec elle
disparaissait le rayon de soleil de la maison.
Le temps passait lentement pour tous les deux. Il ne pouvait plus
peindre, obsédé comme il l’était par sa vision ; elle ne pouvait
travailler, car son esprit était auprès de lui. Jamais la peinture n’avait
paru aussi fastidieuse à Tracy ; jamais la confection d’une rose
n’avait été aussi insipide pour Gwendolen, qui avait quitté l’artiste
sans réitérer son invitation à dîner, ce qui était pour lui une vraie
déception.
Cette abstention avait coûté également à la jeune fille, mais elle
ne trouvait plus possible de l’inviter aujourd’hui. La veille, elle s’était
cru toutes les libertés possibles ; une grande réserve lui paraissait
de mise aujourd’hui ; elle n’osait plus dire ou penser quoi que ce soit,
fascinée par l’idée qu’il pourrait le prendre en mauvaise part. L’inviter
à dîner aujourd’hui ? Cette pensée seule la faisait frémir et sa
journée se passa au milieu d’alternatives de craintes et
d’espérances.
Trois fois elle descendit pour donner des ordres soi-disant
nécessaires, et pendant ses allées et venues, elle l’aperçut six fois
sans avoir l’air de regarder de son côté.
 Elle fut assez maîtresse d’elle pour dissimuler sa joie, mais elle
se sentait remuée au fond de l’âme. Cette situation lui enlevait toute
espèce de naturel et le calme qu’elle affectait était trop complet pour
n’être pas lu. Le peintre partageait ces émois ; six fois il put
l’entrevoir et se sentit rempli d’un bonheur ineffable ; son cœur battit
violemment et il éprouva une félicité qui le rendit presque
inconscient.
Conséquence immédiate, il dut faire six retouches à sa toile.
Enfin Gwendolen trouva un peu de calme en écrivant à ses amis
Thompson qu’elle irait dîner chez eux. Là au moins elle oublierait
l’absent. Mais pendant ce temps, le duc entra causer avec l’artiste et
le pria de rester à dîner. Tracy dissimula le plaisir qu’il en avait dans
un redoublement d’activité et savoura intérieurement la joie de voir
Gwendolen de près, de la contempler, d’entendre sa voix ; il lui
semblait avoir reconquis le paradis.
Le duc pensait : Ce fantôme peut évidemment manger des
pommes ; nous verrons si c’est une spécialité chez lui, comme je le
crois. Les pommes seraient alors des fruits appréciés des spectres
comme de nos premiers parents ; reste à savoir si ma comparaison
est tout à fait juste.
Le nouveau complet lui causa une autre satisfaction : je l’ai
amené à notre époque, plus aucun doute à ce sujet, se dit-il.
Sellers se déclara content du travail de Tracy et le pria de
restaurer ses vieux maîtres, puis de faire son portrait, celui de sa
femme et probablement celui de sa fille. L’artiste ne se possédait
plus de joie ; il causait et babillait tout en peignant, tandis que Sellers
déballait un tableau qu’il avait apporté. C’était un chromo qui venait
de paraître et présentait le portrait d’un individu qui inondait l’Union
de ses réclames et invitait le public à acheter chez lui des chapeaux
et habits bon marché. Le vieux lord contemplait le chromo avec
recueillement, dans un silence profond, puis quelques larmes
tombèrent furtivement sur la gravure.
Tracy fut ému de ce travail qui lui montra Sellers sous un jour
sympathique ; pourtant il se sentit de trop dans l’intimité de ce
vieillard, qui, assurément, ne devait pas tenir à mettre un étranger au
courant de ses chagrins intimes.
Mais la pitié l’emporta sur les autres considérations et il chercha
à réconforter le duc par quelques paroles affables et des marques
d’intérêt.
— Je suis désolé, dit-il… Est-ce un ami ?
— Oh ! plus qu’un ami, un parent, le plus cher que j’aie possédé
sur terre, bien qu’il ne m’ait jamais été permis de le rencontrer. Oui,
c’est le jeune Lord Berkeley qui a péri si héroïquement dans… Mais
qu’avez-vous donc ?
— Oh ! rien, rien du tout. Je suis un peu ému de voir le portrait
d’un homme dont on a tant entendu parler. Est-il ressemblant ?
— Oui, sans doute, je ne l’ai jamais vu, mais vous pouvez juger
de sa ressemblance avec son père, dit Sellers en élevant le chromo,
et en le maintenant en face du soi-disant portrait de l’usurpateur.
— Mon Dieu, non, je ne vois pas bien la ressemblance.
— Il est certain que l’usurpateur ici représenté a une tête
énergique, une longue figure de cheval, tandis que son héritier a une
physionomie morne, sans caractère, presque une face de lune.
Dans notre enfance, nous sommes tous comme cela dans la famille,
répondit Sellers avec assurance. Au premier âge nous avons l’air de
têtards mal formés, puis la chrysalide se métamorphose, une
transformation se produit et nous devenons des intelligences et des
natures transcendantes. C’est en faisant ces réserves que je
découvre ici une ressemblance frappante et que je trouve ce portrait
parfait. Oui, dans notre famille, on commence toujours par être un
crétin. Évidemment, on retrouve chez ce jeune homme les
caractères distinctifs héréditaires que vous me signalez. Oh ! oui, il
devait être un parfait crétin, remarquez sa figure, la forme de sa tête,
son expression, c’est bien l’imbécile dans toute l’acception du terme.
— Merci, dit Tracy involontairement.
— Merci, pourquoi ?
— Merci de me fournir cette explication. Continuez, je vous prie.
 — Comme je vous le disais, la bêtise est peinte sur son visage ;
personne ne peut s’y méprendre. Que lisiez-vous sur son visage ?
— Somme toute qu’il est un original.
— Un original. Un individu à principes arrêtés sur tous les sujets,
une espèce de roc qui se croit immuable, infaillible et reste
opiniâtrément fidèle à ses principes, jusqu’au jour où le roc cède et
fond entièrement. Tel est le portrait exact de Lord Berkeley. Mais…
vous rougissez…
— Oh ! non pas, loin de là.
Mais cela fait toujours rougir d’entendre un homme mal parler de
sa famille, pensa-t-il. Quelle chose étonnante que son imagination
vagabonde soit tombée si juste ! N’a-t-il pas dépeint parfaitement
mon caractère, sous les traits de cet être méprisable ? En quittant
l’Angleterre, je croyais me connaître. Je croyais posséder la volonté
et l’énergie d’un Frédéric le Grand, tandis que je suis un faible
d’esprit et rien de plus. Enfin, pour me consoler, je puis me vanter
d’être un idéaliste et de porter en moi de belles et généreuses
conceptions. Croyez-vous que cette tête de benêt soit capable de
mûrir une idée chevaleresque dans sa cervelle et de l’exécuter ?
— Le croiriez-vous capable, par exemple, de renoncer à son titre
et à sa fortune, pour mener la vie du commun des mortels et se
créer une situation personnelle, au risque de végéter toute sa vie
dans la pauvreté ?
— Lui, mais regardez-moi donc le sourire niais et satisfait de ce
visage ! Il pourrait peut-être concevoir cette idée et commencer à
l’exécuter.
— Et ensuite ?
— Il échouerait, chaque fois, dans toutes ses entreprises. Oh !
certainement. Il est Rossmore jusqu’au bout des ongles.
— Alors, il ne faut pas déplorer sa mort. Tenez, supposons un
instant, pour le plaisir de la discussion, que je sois Rossmore et
que…
— C’est impossible.
 — Pourquoi ?
— Parce que c’est inadmissible. Pour représenter un Rossmore à
votre âge, il faudrait que vous fussiez un imbécile ; or, vous ne l’êtes
pas. Il faudrait que vous fussiez un indécis ; or, il saute aux yeux du
physionomiste le moins exercé, que votre volonté est des plus
arrêtées, elle résisterait à tout.
Et il ajouta en lui-même : C’est suffisant ; inutile de lui en dire plus
long sur sa volonté, que je sais être de fer. Plus je le vois, plus je le
trouve remarquable. Il a une fermeté de traits extraordinaire, une
décision presque surhumaine ; c’est un être absolument supérieur.
— Un de ces jours, reprit-il tout haut, je vous demanderai votre
avis pour une chose un peu délicate, monsieur Tracy. J’ai chez moi
les restes de ce pauvre jeune homme… Mon Dieu, comme vous
sursautez…
— Continuez, ce n’est rien. Vous avez ses restes ?
— Oui.
— Êtes-vous bien sûr de posséder ses restes et non ceux d’un
autre ?
— Oh ! absolument sûr. Du moins, j’en possède des échantillons ;
je ne prétends pas avoir tous ses restes.
— Des échantillons !
— Oui, dans des paniers. Un jour que vous irez en Angleterre, s’il
vous était égal de les emporter…
— Qui… moi ?
— Oui, vous. Je ne dis pas tout de suite, mais plus tard. En
attendant, voudriez-vous les voir ?
— Oh ! non, je n’en ai aucune envie.
— Oh ! très bien, je croyais que… Tiens, où allez-vous, ma
chérie ?
— Dîner dehors, papa.
Tracy était ennuyé et le colonel lui dit, désappointé :
— Je le regrette, je ne savais pas qu’elle sortait, monsieur Tracy.
 La physionomie de Gwendolen exprimait à ce moment une
déception. Elle se demandait si elle n’avait pas pris une résolution
trop hâtive. Trois vieilles têtes en face d’un jeune, c’est trop.
Gwendolen, agitée d’un vague espoir, dit d’un air qu’elle s’efforçait
de rendre naturel :
— Si vous le préférez, j’écrirai aux Thompson que…
— Oh ! c’est chez les Thompson que vous allez ? Cela simplifie
tout. Nous nous arrangerons bien sans gâter votre soirée, mon
enfant. Je ne voudrais pas gâter votre soirée, mon enfant, ni vous
causer de déception, mon enfant, puisque c’était convenu.
— Mais, papa, j’irai aussi bien un autre jour…
— Non, je ne veux pas… Vous êtes une brave enfant courageuse
et active, et votre père ne veut pas contrarier vos projets quand…
— Mais papa, je…
— Non… pas un mot, nous nous passerons bien de vous, ma
fille.
Gwendolen, navrée, était sur le point de pleurer ; il ne lui restait
plus qu’à partir. Soudain son père eut une idée géniale, qui lui permit
d’aplanir la difficulté.
— Il me vient une idée, mon enfant, dit-il ; j’ai trouvé le moyen de
ne pas vous priver de votre invitation et de nous consoler en même
temps de votre absence : envoyez-nous votre amie, Bella
Thompson ; Tracy, vous verrez quelle délicieuse créature. Oh ! oui,
sans exagération, elle est superbe, je veux que vous la voyiez et je
suis sûr que vous en serez sur l’heure éperdument amoureux. Oui,
oui, envoyez-nous-la, Gwendolen, et dites-lui… Tiens, elle est
partie !
En se retournant, il la vit au tournant de la grille.
— Je ne sais ce qu’elle a, remarqua-t-il, on dirait qu’elle est
furieuse. Eh bien ! continua Sellers, je vous avoue, Tracy, que ma
fille me manquera : les enfants manquent toujours à leurs parents.
Mais miss Bella vous intéressera beaucoup, vous serez vite épris
d’elle et la soirée ne vous paraîtra pas trop longue. Quant à nous,
les vieux, nous nous tirerons d’affaire ; d’ailleurs ce sera aussi
l’occasion pour vous de faire plus ample connaissance avec l’Amiral
Hawkins. Voilà un beau caractère, mon cher, un des plus beaux
caractères que l’on puisse rencontrer. Vous aurez grand plaisir à
l’étudier. Je le connais, pour ma part, depuis son enfance, et j’ai
assisté à l’évolution de son esprit. Je puis dire qu’il a beaucoup
contribué à développer mon goût très prononcé pour la psychologie,
car ses idées et ses observations portent sur les sujets les plus
curieux.
Tracy, distrait, n’entendait pas un mot de ce monologue, son
esprit errait ailleurs.
— Oui, ce caractère étonnant a pour base la dissimulation et la
première chose à découvrir chez un homme c’est le fond de son
caractère ; lorsque vous possédez cette clé, aucune particularité,
aucune contradiction apparente ne peut alors vous induire en erreur.
Mais que lisez-vous sur la physionomie du sénateur ? La simplicité
la plus parfaite. Eh bien ! en réalité, c’est un homme des plus
compliqués, un esprit des plus profonds, un caractère honnête et
droit par excellence, mais passé maître dans l’art de la dissimulation.
— Ah ! mais tout cela est diabolique !
Cette exclamation avait échappé à Tracy qui pensait avec
angoisse au plaisir qu’il aurait eu à rester sans toutes les absurdes
complications du dîner.
— Non, retirez votre expression de « diabolique », continua
Sellers en arpentant la pièce et en s’écoutant parler les mains
derrière le dos. On pourrait traiter de diabolique tout autre que le
sénateur. Votre expression serait juste, parfaitement juste, dans
d’autres cas, mais ici elle est impropre. Cet homme a un caractère
superbe. Je ne crois pas qu’on puisse rencontrer chez un autre
homme d’État un esprit aussi puissant joint à une telle faculté de
dissimulation. Je ne pourrais lui comparer que Georges Washington,
Cromwell et peut-être Robespierre, mais là… je tire l’échelle. Une
personne qui ne serait pas un psychologue émérite pourrait passer