Shopping is almost entirely car dependent and in Britain particularly the journey to school which should be a strong preserve of the cyclist and the pedestrian is now largely motorised. This is not the case throughout Europe. Dutch cities such as Delft and Groningen offer important models of successful bicycle and pedestrian transport. Copenhagen has an enviable record of support for the bicycle that could be translated to most other European cities of more than 500,000 population. The age old assumption that new roads simply reallocated existing traffic onto the additional road space, was disproved revealing the existence of feedback and the counter-productive effect of 40 years of large scale public investment in new road capacity.
Mobility is an expression of the relationship in urban areas between time and space.
We can be very mobile over a large area with the assistance of vehicles and roads, but only at the cost of consuming fossil fuels, land for roads and car parking and producing large amounts of greenhouse gases and pollutants that damage respiratory health, particularly of children. We can be relatively immobile but at the same time accessibility rich and using buses, bicycles and feet to make contact with local shops, schools and workplaces. This relative immobility is very undemanding in its use of energy and in its production of pollutants. It is also vital for socially rich communities where neighbours know each other, children play in the streets and community activities are common. Those satisfying their daily needs for goods and services and employment in a relatively small geographical area will have more time to 'spend' on discretionary activities than those who spread out over a radius of up to 50 km in the search for shops, workplaces, schools and recreational centres.