GEMOTT at the Transportation Research Symposium 2025 in Rotterdam
From May 25 to 28, Rotterdam hosted the Transportation Research Symposium 2025, one of the leading international forums for debate and research on mobility and transport. The GEMOTT research group (Group for Mobility, Transport and Territory Studies) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona actively contributed with three presentations that explore mobility through critical, feminist, inclusive, and territorial lenses.
Dr. Marta Fernández Núñez presented two research contributions developed within GEMOTT:
School Streets as Pathways to Sustainable and Equitable Urban Environments
This study focuses on Barcelona’s “Protegim les Escoles” initiative, which has introduced car-free or traffic-calmed school streets to improve safety, air quality, and child well-being.
The analysis reveals strong public support for the initiative and highlights its alignment with distributive justice (equitable access to safe urban space) and, to some extent, procedural justice (community consultation).
However, other key dimensions such as deliberative justice (inclusive dialogue), epistemic justice (valuing residents’ lived knowledge), and restorative justice (addressing historical spatial inequities) remain largely unaddressed. The study calls for more inclusive planning frameworks to ensure school streets contribute meaningfully to justice-oriented urban transformation.
The Influence of Sustainable Transport Policies on Local Elections
This research examines whether Barcelona’s sustainable mobility policies—including superblocks, expanded cycling infrastructure, and school street programs—had an effect on voting outcomes in the 2023 local elections.
Using multilevel regression and spatial analysis at the census tract level, the findings show a positive correlation between the presence of superblocks and electoral support for Barcelona en Comú, the party promoting these measures.
While the impact of other interventions remains less clear, the study highlights the political relevance of transport policies and the importance of understanding their electoral consequences.
Jeronia Cubells presented her research Queer Mobilities: Emotional and Behavioural Patterns in Active Travel, which offers a pioneering look into the emotional and behavioral experiences of LGBTIQ+ people in urban mobility.
Based on 22 interviews with non-binary individuals and women (cisgender, transgender, and intersex) identifying as lesbian, bisexual, or pansexual, this study uses Relief Maps to analyze how intersecting identities shape emotional comfort while cycling in Barcelona.
The research reveals how various forms of discrimination—misogyny, lesbophobia, transphobia, and racism—affect mobility behaviors and how participants navigate urban spaces through strategies of resistance and care. It also highlights moments of joy and liberation in public space, illustrating how queer visibility and well-being are actively constructed through mobility choices and emotional navigation.
We at GEMOTT would like to thank the organizers of the Transportation Research Symposium 2025 for their warm welcome and for providing a space for meaningful academic exchange. Events like this are vital to advancing knowledge and fostering collaboration in the field of mobility and transport studies.
