Mobilities of care and cognitive labour: Can urban proximity reduce the organisational burden of everyday mobility?

Urban proximity is increasingly recognised as a fundamental planning principle; however, its social implications remain insufficiently explored. Existing mobility-of-care research primarily focuses on observed travel behaviour and single-destination accessibility, offering limited insight into the cognitive processes that underlie care mobility. This study addresses this gap by examining how proximity relates to the organisational demands of care-related mobility. The analysis considers three outcomes: the cognitive labour involved in planning care-related travel, the integration of personal, household, and caregiving trips within daily routines, and conflicts between personal and care responsibilities. Drawing on geolocated survey data from 823 caregivers in the Barcelona metropolitan area, the study develops a multidimensional proximity index incorporating travel time to destinations, service density, and spatial clustering. Regression models estimate associations between proximity and the three outcomes, controlling for socio-demographic and household characteristics. Findings indicate that greater proximity is associated with reduced cognitive burden, more seamless trip integration, and fewer conflicts. These associations are attributable to travel time to destinations and destination density, while spatial clustering has a limited effect. However, proximity alone does not directly address care-related structural inequities embedded in existing social structures. By linking spatial configuration to lived mobility experiences, this study conceptualises proximity as an organisational resource that reduces the effort required to coordinate daily life. Urban planning should therefore move beyond traditional accessibility metrics to include organisational and cognitive dimensions. Policies promoting dense, mixed-use environments around key care destinations, such as schools and health services, may reduce coordination burdens, supporting more equitable everyday mobility.