Setting the scene

Mobility is something that we mostly take for granted until it is restricted in some way. The ability to travel more-or-less when and where we like – within everyday social, economic and domestic restrictions – is an assumed part of twenty-first century life in most parts of the world. Only when we are deprived of mobility, perhaps through illness or incapacity; because of external factors such as severe weather; or, more rarely, through incarceration do we begin to appreciate the importance of being able to move reasonably freely in our daily lives. Even in the most extreme examples of restriction some mobility is usually possible. A nurse may move a bed or chair of a hospital patient to the window or outside to vary the patient's environment (Gesler, 1992, 2005); most prisoners will have some periods of exercise outside their cell, and can move around inside where personal space may take on special meanings (Baer, 2005); internet access can provide even the most immobile person with virtual mobility to almost any location (Kitchin, 1998; Dodge and Kitchin, 2001); and, excluding people in a state of unconsciousness, we can all move around mentally allowing us to visit other real and imagined worlds. Mobility thus takes many different forms and is an essential and embedded part of everyday life. This book focuses mainly on the most common form of physical mobility: short trips in urban areas that are required in order to carry out everyday tasks such as going to work or school, shopping, or leisure and social activities. Its focus is mainly on twenty-first century England but set within a broader historical and geographical context that allows comparisons to be made with other times and places. It does not examine the movement of goods or ideas though these all form part of the wider nexus of global mobilities.

Sustainability is a concept which, like mobility, is both ubiquitous and vague. A literal definition refers to the ability to maintain or carry on an activity and, in the twenty-first century, the term is most commonly employed in the context of the environment where sustainability implies resource use that does not damage the environment, which is equitable, and which does not compromise future generations (Peake and Smith, 2009; Stern, 2010).