Cycling Research Board Annual Meeting

Automated mobility technologies are increasingly promoted as solutions to urban transport challenges. Yet even before large-scale deployment, anticipatory governance—through pilot projects, planning strategies, and regulatory frameworks—already reshapes urban mobility environments. These changes may affect children’s opportunities for independent and active mobility, which play a crucial role in the development of autonomy, spatial competence, and social participation.
This PhD project investigates how the anticipatory governance of automated mobility influences children’s real opportunities for independent mobility in cities, and under what conditions democratic societies may be justified in constraining automation to protect these capabilities.
The project combines normative political theory with comparative urban governance analysis. It develops a theoretical framework integrating capability theory, intergenerational justice, and democratic governance under uncertainty. Independent mobility in childhood is conceptualized as a key enabling capability that supports multiple dimensions of human development.