Reimagining Sustainable Transport Through the Urban Metabolism Lens: A Review and Expert Synthesis

ABSTRACT Urban metabolism (UM) offers a systems approach to the flows of resources in cities, but transportation, even with its high energy, land, and infrastructure requirements, has not been adequately conceptualised in this context. This study examines how transportation has been addressed in UM research and evaluates the added value of applying a UM lens to sustainable transport planning. A multi‐method evidence synthesis is employed, combining bibliometric analysis of 307 peer‐reviewed journal articles published between 1965 and 2024 (indexed in Scopus and Web of Science) with qualitative insights from 15 expert interviews involving planners, policymakers, consultants, and researchers. The bibliometric results reveal a fragmented and geographically concentrated, dominated by energy efficiency and emissions‐focused analyses, with limited attention to land use, governance, and behavioural dimensions. Expert interviews highlight land consumption, public space allocation, governance fragmentation, and behavioural inertia as critical resource challenges that are weakly reflected in the academic literature. Integrating both evidence streams, the study conceptualises urban transport as a socio‐technical metabolic subsystem and proposes an Urban Transport Metabolism Framework to support more integrated and policy‐relevant sustainable transport transitions.