Integrated mobility system in the city: Urban infrastructural innovation towards a low-carbon society

Cities are a space that contains key systems for our lives, such as housing, transport and local energy networks. As national governments set targets to aim to reduce carbon emissions, cities are increasingly expected to play a major role in transitions to low-carbon society. Focusing on transport, this paper examines the case of an integrated mobility system in a Japanese city to understand how new urban infrastructures link to sustainable lifestyles. We take a systemic network approach, which looks at not only technological, economic and political aspects, but also social and human aspects in the system, and embraces a diversity of individuals and organisations that are involved in the sociotechnical system.

Our empirical study is situated in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture. The city is located 31 km east of Tokyo and has a population of c.414,000. It is well communicated with three major railway lines, and 42 per cent of the population commutes to Tokyo. In light of climate change and global warming (as well as aging society), Kashiwa aims to become a city where people can live without excessively depending on cars and can cycle and walk safely by improving local transport infrastructures such as public, community and shared buses, and associated facilities. This city-led integrated mobility strategy brings a diverse mode of transport together through ICT and has the potential to change people’s lifestyles. We explore how the city plans to manage such an integrated system, in relation to the national government’s strategy for low-carbon society, and how actors in the local mobility system such as railway companies and technology providers envisage the local transition to a low-carbon city that are universal and inclusive.