Pandemic Detours or New Sustainable Pathways? Post-pandemic Mobility Futures in Danish Cities

When mobility normality breaks down, new futures can emerge. This paper explores COVID-19 disruptions of everyday mobility in Danish cities and new emerging pathways toward less carbon-intensive mobility futures in the light of the mobile risk society and practice theory. It uses a stakeholder workshop with public transport providers as empirical outset to start conceptualizing new discussions that have emerged in the wake of COVID-19. Through four inquiries into pandemic-induced changes–including reducing, remoding, rescheduling and replacing mobility practices–it discusses how a new critical view on “business as usual” has emerged from the pandemic, especially in relation to public transport and linkage to other transport modes.