Advancing impact evaluation in urban mobility: A participatory, pathway-based framework

Abstract

We present a participatory impact pathways framework for evaluating complex and heterogenous urban mobility projects. It balances project-specific analysis with cross-project comparability. Its focus on stakeholder engagement and systemic change shows the added value of participatory, process- and practice-oriented evaluation for assessing long-term societal impact.This paper introduces a participatory, impact pathway framework designed for evaluating complex urban mobility projects. It combines qualitative and quantitative data, including surveys, interviews, and a coding scheme that captures infrastructural, institutional, and cultural change dimensions. The iterative development process, involving project actors through workshops and feedback loops, demonstrates that higher stakeholder engagement can enhance understanding of systemic effects and improve the robustness of evaluation results. The approach emphasizes balancing project-specific insights with comparability across diverse initiatives, enabling long-term impact assessment that is relevant for society. The paper concludes that integrating participatory methods into impact assessment enhances the ability to capture the multifaceted effects of mobility projects and advances evaluation research in sustainable urban mobility.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society, 2026 · DOI ↗