From mobility experiences to planning priorities: Co-creation embedded in peri-urban mobility planning

Multimodal mobility could significantly contribute to accessibility and decarbonisation goals in peri-urban areas which are typically car-dependent. However, planning for such systems is complex, requiring input from inhabitants and actors across scales. Co-creative processes offer opportunities to integrate different forms of knowledge into mobility planning, yet their application in peri-urban contexts remains underexplored. This study employed qualitative methods to explore the challenges of multimodal mobility in peri-urban areas and investigate how co-creation could translate inhabitants’ mobility experiences into planning-relevant priorities. Using a case study from the Tallinn Urban Region in Estonia, the study examines a middle-class suburban neighbourhood shaped by urban sprawl and reflective of peri-urban development globally. The study was embedded in an ongoing planning process, informing real-time policy development. Four co-creative activities enabled mobility experiences, academic insights and institutional knowledge to be revisited and progressively developed into context-specific mobility challenges, possible solutions and planning priorities. The findings suggest that peri-urban residents are open to increasing their multimodal travel, but this requires more diverse and seasonally responsive transport options, safer infrastructure for active travel, and better access to local facilities, particularly to children’s leisure activities. Nevertheless, cars are likely to remain an important transport mode in peri-urban settings. Behavioural and informational barriers, including limited familiarity with existing mobility options, further shape the feasibility of multimodal travel. The study shows how co-creation embedded within an ongoing planning process can translate lived mobility experiences into planning-relevant priorities through iterative feedback, knowledge integration and collective learning between inhabitants, planners and other actors.