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This first report on mobilities outlines some aspects of research on mobilities that differentiates it from and connects it to earlier, ongoing geographies of movement such as transport geography. In the context of a world on the move it seeks to bring us up to date with the mobilities turn and make a case for mobility research as a project which focuses on the universal but always particularly constructed fact of moving. Mobilities research is compared to and differentiated from work in transport geography, arguing that mobilities research takes a more holistic view that allows it to make some previously unlikely connections.

Although the policy of abolishing fares in public transport—here referred to as “fare-free public transport” (FFPT)—exists in nearly 100 localities worldwide, it has not been thoroughly researched. To start filling this gap, I enhance the conceptual clarity about fare abolition. I start by providing a definition of FFPT, discussing its different forms, and introducing a distinction between “partial” FFPT and—the main focus of the paper—“full” FFPT. Next, I distinguish three perspectives on full FFPT—first, approaches that assess fare abolition primarily against its economic impact; second, analyses that look at its contribution to “sustainable” development; third, more critical arguments highlighting its politically transformative and socially just potential. Against the background of this debate I offer the most comprehensive inventory of full FFPT programmes to date, and begin to chart and examine their global geography. As a result, FFPT emerges as a policy that takes diverse forms and exists in diverse locations. Supported and contested by diverse rationales, it cannot be analysed as transport instrument alone.

Dispersal is one of the key mechanisms affecting the distribution of individuals, populations, and communities in nature. Despite advances in the study of single species, it has been notoriously difficult to account for dispersal in multispecies metacommunities, where it potentially has strong effects on community structure beyond those of local environmental conditions. Dispersal should thus be directly integrated in both basic and applied research by using proxies. Here, we review the use of proxies in the current metacommunity research, suggest new proxies, and discuss how proxies could be used in community modelling, particularly in freshwater systems. We suggest that while traditional proxies may still be useful, proxies formerly utilized in transport geography may provide useful novel insights into the structuring of biological communities in freshwater systems. We also suggest that understanding the utility of such proxies for dispersal in metacommunities is highly important for many applied fields such as freshwater bioassessment, conservation planning, and recolonization research in the context of restoration ecology. These research fields have often ignored spatial dynamics and focused mostly on local environmental conditions and changes therein. Yet, the conclusions of these applied studies may change considerably if dispersal is taken into account.

Recent reviews have suggested a vibrancy and diversity in transport geography. But these articles were the first progress reports on transport geography since 1988, indicating how the field has been relatively marginal to broader disciplinary debates. Meanwhile, a lively literature on mobilities has developed. In these contexts and as a supplement to the recent progress reports, a review of otherwise largely distinct fields reminds us how transport as a critical component of inquiry in geography is frequently taken for granted. We invite a re-engagement with transport and transport geography that opens fresh tracks for human geography.

The interconnection of transport infrastructure is a priority area under the Belt and Road Initiative and holds significant implications for global socio-economic development. Air network connectivity plays a vital role in shaping transport efficiency. From a global air transport network perspective, this study investigates the spatial evolution of China’s international air cargo network connectivity between 1996 and 2019. Using OAG global flight schedule data from five representative years (1996, 2002, 2008, 2014, and 2019), we apply complex network theory and graph-theoretical methods, incorporating tools such as UciNet and ArcMap. Three key indicators, weighted degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and K-core decomposition, are employed to analyze changes, evolutionary patterns, and driving factors of network connectivity. The findings reveal that with shifting global economic and policy environments, China’s air cargo network connectivity has gradually strengthened, with an increasingly hierarchical structure and more diversified and efficient network forms. Freighter and bellyhold cargo routes differ markedly in network evolution: freighter routes display a stable core-periphery structure shaped by industrial and policy factors, while bellyhold routes evolve path-dependently alongside passenger services, shifting from concentration to decentralization. This study demonstrates the dynamic restructuring of China’s international air cargo connectivity under the dual forces of globalization and regionalization. It provides theoretical insights and decision-making references for enhancing China’s air transport efficiency and supporting the implementation of the Belt and Road vision, thereby contributing to the advancement of global integration.

Through an examination of transport planning in Australia, this book challenges conventional wisdom by showing, through original research, how 'car dependence' is as much an institutional as a technical phenomenon. The authors' case studies in three metropolitan cities show how transport policy has become institutionally fixated on a path dominated by private, road-based transport and how policy systems become encrusted around investment to accommodate private cars, erecting an impenetrable barrier against more sustainable mobility and accessibility solutions. The findings are applicable to most cities of the developed world, and to fields beyond transport planning.

This article focuses on free fare public transport policy (FFPT) as an example of the sustainable mobility paradigm FFPT is one of a number of instruments through which a balance between the economic costs and efficiency in the public transport system can be reached. Even though the strategic approach of FFPT systems is used worldwide, their implementation is somewhat sporadic. By investigating examples of currently or formerly existing free fare public transport schemes, this study analyses the overall ability of FFPT to reach the strategic targets required. The study identifies four key areas that the municipalities are trying to target (reducing car use externalities, social justice/benefits provision, increasing the efficiency of public transport, and promoting sustainable means of transportation). As the specific conditions of each locality generate particular issues, the strategy of each transport system authority differs from one to another. It is, therefore, necessary for the transport planning authorities to implement various tools (both supportive and repressive) whose synergies will target the main objectives. A systematic and conceptual approach is what underpins the successful development of the urban transport system in the long-term.

Building new airports requires extensive investment. In principle, airport development projects should be well-planned and thoughtfully designed. Despite this, the Department of Airports (DOA), a part of the Thai bureaucracy, has allegedly continued constructing remote airports that do not appear economically viable. The reasons for these unexplained projects have also been studied. Political, economic, social, technological, legal, and ecological analyses were used to explore and evaluate the macroenvironmental factors that influence the DOA in initiating project decisions. The newly opened Betong International Airport in the southernmost district of Yala Province was used as a case study. By examining the macroenvironmental setting, the findings showed that the DOA's bureaucratic culture was the key condition responsible for the flawed and defective layout of the nation's southernmost airport. This, in turn, made Betong International Airport economically unfeasible for local airlines servicing routes from Betong to other destinations.

This book delves into the everyday spaces, diverse mobilities and affective potency of weather. It presents cutting-edge research into the multiplicity of weather phenomena and analyses the lived experiences of humans in conjunction with contemporary issues, notably climate change. The book considers how everyday experiences of weather in the mundane lives of people are linked to broader changes in weather patterns and climate change. Heat, dust, ice, snow, precipitation, sunlight, clouds, tides and fog are states of weather that impact on the ways in which humans become intertwined with landscapes. Our experiences with weather are diverse and ever-changing, and engaging with weather entangles humans with mobilities, materials and landscapes. This book thus explores affective and sensory resonances, drawing upon a variety of theoretical, empirical and creative material to investigate how weather is perceived in different social and cultural contexts. Key themes focus on the mobilities generated by weather, the affective and sensual potency of weather, and the diverse cultural forms and practices that exemplify how weather is historically, geographically and artistically represented. Offering a social and cultural understanding of weather events, this book contributes to a growing literature on weather across various disciplines, including human geography and cultural geography, and will thus appeal to students and scholars of geography, sociology, humanities, cultural studies and the arts.

In Poland, in 2018, the act on Sunday retail restrictions was introduced, changing citizen’s spatial mobility (altered patterns of transport behaviour related to shopping on a weekly scale). Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic (from 2020) on transport behaviour during this time has had an impact, since people were encouraged to stay at home and limit their mobility to an absolute minimum. As a result, the main aim of the article was to identify spatiotemporal changeability of the load of the urban road transport system under permanent and short-term legal and administrative retail restrictions and to determine its spatial and temporal nature on the example of Łódź (a big city in central Poland) during 2018–2021. For that purpose, the authors used three types of source data, i.e., official governmental normative data (acts, ordinances, etc.), informative data (official pandemic announcements issued during ministerial press conferences, governmental social media content, etc.), and objective empirical data (induction loops). The pandemic restrictions imposed on top of the existing permanent retail restrictions were shown to distinctly shape the weekly distribution of traffic. In weeks with non-trading Sundays, the percentage of vehicle traffic on weekdays was substantially higher than on weekends, which was particularly noticeable during the first year of the pandemic (2020). Long-term observations have also shown that people began to plan their weekends differently upon the initial implementation of Sunday retail restrictions.