City and mobility. A complex historical and present relationship in search of the always elusive urban sustainability

Abstract

There is no doubt that from the most remote times there has been a mutual interaction and dependence of human settlements with mobility, no matter how rudimentary and primitive those were. In fact, they were almost always, willingly or unwillingly, in strategic places that had to do very directly with mobility. Well, starting from this fact, we propose in the present work to show a panoramic vision of how certain means of transport that have been revolutionary have affected urban mobility, and therefore in the city, radically changing the concept of mobility, such as, for example, the railway, tram or cars. Cities have had no choice but to adapt to these means of transport as they have emerged throughout history, which has had advantages, but also disadvantages. This evolution of the means of mass transport in cities and how they have influenced urban mobility, is what we t1Y to show at its most critical and significant moments, as when the railroad arrived in the cities that were in the process of expansion, or the automobile, which did so in the process of economic development. Ultimately, this vision aims to highlight whether or not the absorption of such means of transport by the city led to sustainable mobility and, where appropriate, to claim the same.