When transformation challenges legacy: tensions in the layering of urban transport policies

Abstract This article examines the persistence of an automobility-centric paradigm in the development of urban policies for sustainable mobility. It draws on the policy composition framework to analyze individual elements of transport policies, from macro-level goals and logics of selecting instruments, to meso-level objectives and instruments, as well as micro-level policy targets and instrument calibrations. The study considers four types of change, namely layering, drift, conversion, and replacement to analyze the evolution of strategies, action plans and policies in the City of Espoo, Finland, a car-centric city with an ambitious carbon neutrality goal. The results show tensions in the development of instruments and their calibrations that simultaneously emphasize both sustainability and the freedom of using cars, which ultimately supports the expansion of private car infrastructure. The article highlights how legacies of car-centric policies can restrain the scope of future policy intervention and potentially lead to an impasse in the transition to more sustainable urban transport policies.