Can Cars Fit in Future Cities? Auto Talks with Susana Castelo on Urban Mobility

The city has transformed, expanded and become more modern, yet it still retains something many people thought would have disappeared by now: cars. Almost everything has already been said about the pressures of urban mobility, and in nearly every debate the car is singled out as the enemy to tackle-whether by restricting access or even banning it altogether.

That raises a further question: can the car also play a role in the solution for the cities of the future, living alongside everything else in a balanced way-from public transport to walking?

To explore this and other issues around urban mobility, we invited Susana Castelo, Executive Director at TIS (Transport, Innovation and Systems Consultancy), to the latest episode of Auto Talks. This edition was recorded during the 36th Annual Convention of ANECRA, with support from Banco Credibom.

The challenges of achieving better mobility

Although there have been improvements, Susana Castelo does not write the car out of the picture when it comes to making urban mobility more effective and efficient. Instead, she argues that today there is an “excessive use” of it.

In her view, the smart approach is to rethink the car’s place in the cities of the future, aiming for “a more coherent use of public space and a more peaceful coexistence between the different modes”.

According to Susana Castelo, what prevents mobility from moving in that direction is policy. The reason is simple: it forces difficult decisions-covering everything from access to parking, to traffic speeds, and even the ageing of vehicle fleets.

On parking specifically, she believes that “more demanding measures are inevitable”. That can range from fully paid parking across city centres to schemes where the cost changes depending on how many cars each resident leaves occupying the public highway.

This is because, in many Portuguese cities, parking is free or low-cost, which keeps the car an appealing option for getting around. For Susana Castelo, that reality makes any meaningful change harder to achieve.

Her goal, she stresses, is not to push cars out of cities, but rather to “create space for those who walk, cycle or depend on public transport”. Without that reorganisation, she argues, it will be extremely difficult to shift long-established habits.

Car-sharing is an opportunity still to be explored

Susana Castelo believes car-sharing-sharing access to a car-can still be part of the future of mobility, even though it has fallen well short of expectations not only in Portuguese cities but also in many European ones.

Above all, she says, it can suit younger generations who value access more than ownership-something made easier by today’s technology. She also noted that the car-sharing model itself may evolve into something slightly different, as she explained in the conversation you can watch above.

See you at the next Auto Talks

This Auto Talks also covered other aspects of urban mobility, including the role of public transport (rail and road) and the need to improve its territorial coverage, as well as the guest’s argument for giving urban space back to people.

There is, therefore, no shortage of reasons to watch or listen to the latest Auto Talks-the new editorial format from Razão Automóvel-on the usual platforms: YouTube, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.