Publication details
Traffic Signing and Urban Centrality: Reproduction of Spatial Patterns or a Path Towards Sustainable Urban Planning?
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| Year of publication | 2026 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | The paradigm of sustainable urban mobility has become increasingly established within urban transport policies and urban development visions in recent years. A key objective of these strategies is the gradual reduction of car use within the overall modal split. However, the ideal of a city integrating multiple forms of mobility and supporting the autonomous functioning of neighbourhoods within a polycentric structure often clashes with realpolitik of urban governance and the pragmatism of transport engineering. Drawing on the case of Brno (Czech Republic), this paper highlights the spatio-temporal manifestations of technological lock-in within car-oriented systems in a context that paradoxically promotes sustainability through strategic and spatial planning. The tension between the existing state of affairs and planning narratives provides the analytical framework for examining differing representations and productions of urban space. In Brno, approaches to transport infrastructure design, spatial orientation, and wayfinding continue to reinforce a centripetal pattern of mobility. In contrast, analytically derived and normative representations frame the city as polycentric and supportive of non-motorised transport. Drawing on data on traffic signage that directs movement towards the city centre, as well as recent asphalt-driven reconstructions of urban radial roads that operate as car-dominated corridors, we reveal the ongoing reproduction of car-oriented space. This reproduction not only disregards societal and institutional calls for sustainable mobility but also contradicts evolving understandings of urban centrality within increasingly multifaceted spaces of everyday (non-)human interactions. By confronting transport discourse with geographical conceptualisations of the transformation of lived urban space, we identify key barriers to the implementation of sustainable mobility visions. The findings are situated within broader debates on the future of urban mobility and the conceptualisation of urban centrality. |
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