Advancing inclusion in Urban Mobility through education
On International Women’s Day, CARNET highlights the structural importance of integrating gender perspectives into urban mobility research, planning, and innovation. Despite significant progress in sustainable transport and digitalisation, equity considerations remain inconsistently embedded in system design and governance frameworks. Gendered mobility patterns, care-related trip chaining, safety perceptions, and access to digital mobility services continue to be underrepresented in mainstream transport models and innovation processes.
In 2021–2022, CARNET contributed to Women in Urban Mobility (WUM), a project funded by EIT Urban Mobility. WUM was conceived to address a structural gap: the limited presence of formalised networks and leadership pathways for women in the urban mobility sector. Through coordinated activities in Munich, Sofia, and Barcelona, the initiative combined knowledge exchange, professional development, and stakeholder dialogue, while fostering cross-sector collaboration between academia, industry, and public authorities.
Participation figures reflect the sector’s demand for these spaces. In 2021, WUM engaged 110 participants in Barcelona meetups, 82 in Munich, and 67 in Sofia, alongside 33 attendees at the Annual Summit. The programme also delivered specialised workshops, including 57 participants in Design Thinking and 18 in Female Empowerment. In 2022, the initiative evolved towards a structured course format, reaching 150 participants across its modules and 64 attendees at the Annual Summit.
Beyond quantitative participation, WUM also revealed an important qualitative insight. A survey conducted by CARNET to assess awareness of gender disparities in technological and innovation ecosystems. Results revealed not only persistent inequalities, but also limited knowledge among professionals regarding women’s participation in entrepreneurship, corporate leadership, and scientific careers. This disconnection between perception and data highlighted a critical challenge: technical sectors often lack structured educational spaces to reflect on systemic bias, representation, and inclusive governance.
Building on these insights, 2026 marks an important milestone with the consolidation of Mobility4All, an educational programme supported by EIT Urban Mobility. Mobility4All is designed to strengthen professional competences in inclusive, accessible, and people-centred mobility planning. Its modules, Mobility4Women and Mobility4Elderly, respond to well-documented demographic and social trends: ageing populations, persistent gender gaps in mobility access, and the growing digitalisation of transport services.
Rather than treating inclusion as an add-on, the programme frames it as a systemic dimension of mobility transitions. This includes integrating user-centred design into transport innovation, incorporating disaggregated data into modelling and policy evaluation, and strengthening leadership capacities among underrepresented groups. The approach aligns with European strategic frameworks such as the Green Deal and the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy, which emphasise fairness and social resilience as pillars of the transition.
At CARNET, we view education and capacity building as critical infrastructure for change. Advancing sustainable mobility requires not only technological solutions, but also governance models and professional cultures capable of addressing structural inequalities. On this International Women’s Day, we reaffirm our commitment to contributing to a mobility ecosystem that is technically robust, socially responsive, and inclusive by design.
Further information on the project’s implementation can be found in our previous publications: WUM 2021, and the official WUM website.
