Global Pursuits of Sustainable Transport and Their Challenges in the Context of a Historic Town: The Case of Park-and-Ride Development in Stary Sącz, Poland

The effort to reduce the intensity of car traffic in city centres is among the core objectives of sustainable development. One important means of achieving this aim is the creation of Park-and-Ride facilities. This article examines the challenges encountered during the planning and construction of a Park-and-Ride designed to ease the transport burden of a larger city, yet situated on the edge of a small historic town in Poland. Using a research-through-design method, the study identifies the project’s challenges. The article highlights the overlooked issue of locating Park-and-Ride schemes within sensitive contexts. The accompanying interventions enabled the realisation of an undertaking, originally conceived as a strictly engineering investment fulfilling global policy objectives, but ultimately adapted to manage local priorities. The pursuit of sustainable transport development thus became an opportunity to foreground the dual role of transport spaces: both as organisers of movement and as educators in conveying cultural meaning. The project serves as an example of how local problems may be addressed through investments framed as advancing global political goals. The Park-and-Ride in Stary Sącz also provides material evidence of the significance of decisions made by local authorities to resolve local challenges while contributing to global goals.