The Benefits of Natural Mobility

Cyclists in Pontevedra, Spain / City of Pontevedra

By Jared Green

"To bring vitality back to our cities, we need to prioritize natural mobility," said Miguel Anxo Fernández Lores, Mayor of Pontevedra, a city of approximately 65,000 in the Galician province of Spain.

At this year's Transforming Transportation conference, which is co-organized by the World Bank and World Resources Institute, Fernández Lores said walking and biking are crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving community health and quality of life.

Pedestrians walking in downtown Pontevedra / City of Pontevedra

Fernández Lores, a medical doctor by training, was first elected mayor of Pontevedra 27 years ago. In the late 90s, he found a congested, car-dominated city that was "sick, grey, and stagnant." He puts the blame for this condition squarely on drivers who were using streets as highways. "They created a feeling of a lack of safety, which led to insecurity and then stress. It just didn't work. Speed is incompatible with an urban quality of life."

Over the past few decades, his administration limited city traffic speeds to 30 kilometers per hour (18 miles per hour) and even 20 kilometers per hour (12 miles per hour) in some zones. The city removed street parking, transformed many public spaces and thoroughfares into pedestrian- and cyclist-only zones, and installed over 600 "elevated pedestrian crossings," which look like painted speed bumps and force vehicles to slow down.

Elevated crosswalk in Pontevedra, Spain / City of Pontevedra

He made pedestrians and cyclists first-class citizens and largely relegated cars to the outskirts of the city. The result has been zero traffic deaths since 2011 - an accomplishment that got a round of applause from the crowd.

He also accomplished this without any protected bike lanes. "Given traffic is slow and vehicles are limited, there is no need for separate lanes for them. When you have pacified streets, bikes, pedestrians, and cars can share the road space," he said.

The city didn't eliminate all vehicle traffic but was intentional about creating "destination traffic" and circulatory routes that support access to those destinations. The overall reduction in traffic has led to "more agile mobility" and a 60 percent city-wide drop in greenhouse gas emissions.

Limited vehicle parking alongside bike parking in Pontevedra, Spain / City of Pontevedra

Pontevedra has seen additional positive results from their efforts: "80 percent of kids walk to school. Small businesses thrive in the city center. And the overall age of the population is much lower than the Galician average. We have made the city natural again - and elevated our self-esteem and sense of belonging."

Other global transportation leaders offered strategies that are working for their communities.

The city of Utrecht in the Netherlands invested €2-3 million ($2.3 -3.4 million) in the world's largest underground bike parking facility with 12,500 spaces adjacent to its train station. While the city was criticized for spending so much, said Shelley Bontje with the Dutch Cycling Embassy, the result is that it "saved 10 million in societal costs by reducing traffic congestion and air pollution." The parking facility also charges €1 per day so the city is slowly recouping its investment.

Dar Es Salaam, a city of 7 million people in Tanzania, has led efforts to revamp 200 kilometers of roads to make them safer for pedestrians, explained Humphrey Kanyenye, Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency - with another 50 kilometers to go to complete the project. The city is focused on integrating modes of transit, including its new bus rapid transit line.

And in the Balkans an exciting project is underway to transform the abandoned railways of the former Yugoslavia into a cross-national greenway for cyclists, explained Mirko Radovanac, president of the Yugo Cycling Campaign (YCC), Serbia. When completed, the new bike trail will span 774 kilometers, providing a connected trail from Belgrade in Serbia, through Sarajevo in Bosnia-Hercegovina to Dubrovnik in Croatia. The first linkages have been built, with approximately 150 kilometers left to go, and Albania and Northern Macedonia may soon join the network. Communities are also focused on transforming more than 100 old railway stations along the route into museums, restaurants, and hotels.

The international bike trail is expected to yield some impressive economic benefits. "By year ten, the $73 million trail project is expected to bring 72,000 cycling tourists per year, who are expected to spend $17.5 million each year. The trail is also expected to create 10,000 new jobs," said Radovanac.

The World Health Organization (WHO) also joined the conversation, offering a broader perspective on the health and economic benefits of active transportation. "Transportation is a determinant of health. These systems enable or dis-enable active lifestyles," said Nhan Tran with the WHO.

There is a high cost to a lack of physical activity. It can increase the risk of non-communicable diseases like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, along with mental health impacts. The WHO anticipates 500 million new cases of these kinds of lifestyle diseases in the next decade, which will result in $300 billion in new healthcare costs.

Investments in healthy pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure that increases physical activity pays off. "We can see 5-10 times return on investment in terms of direct avoided costs to the medical system."

One challenge is convincing more people in developing countries that cycling is a healthy transportation option and not just for low income people. In countries like Tanzania, cycling is a mostly rural transportation option. Urban Tanzanians seek to purchase motorbikes, which may be faster but are also less healthy and more dangerous. "It's cultural thinking - if you are riding a bike, you are very poor," Kanyenye said.

In other discussions at Transforming Transportation, policymakers shared progress on transportation electrification. Globally, in 2025, 22 percent of new cars sold were electric.

According to Chandra Bdr. Gurung, Bhutan's minister of infrastructure and transport, his mountainous country, nestled between India and China, is shifting to electric vehicles to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and importation of gas. There have been some challenges getting EV charging stations running in rural parts of the country.

Other modes of transit, like buses, are also going electric. In Dhaka, Bangladesh, a new system of e-buses, including women-only e-buses, has already reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 59,000 tons. And in Bogota, Colombia, a new fleet of electric buses are nearly 10 percent cheaper to operate than gas-powered ones. "They also provide less pollution and noise," said Claudia Diaz, secretary of mobility, Bogotá, Colombia.

Much of this work to accelerate active transportation and electrification will get a boost given the UN Decade on Sustainable Transportation arrived this year. The goal of the effort is to shift investment towards public transit, bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, and electric vehicles, said Nicolas Peltier-Thiberge, senior advisor with the World Bank. The transportation sector is growing, accounting for 200 million jobs worldwide - and it also ensures every other worker on the planet can get to their job.

Other conversations focused on the challenges of integrating "popular transport" - unregulated motorbikes and tuktuk taxis - into more formal transportation systems. Popular transport is widespread and fast growing in Africa and Southeast Asia because conventional urban planning and transportation systems haven't kept up with population growth. "City [governments] can't catch up because cities are growing so fast," said Andrea San Gil Leon, executive director, Global Network for Popular Transportation. More resilient and integrated transportation planning and design that can account for future growth is needed.