2- The urban planning studies approach

of interaction (Hansen, 1959). In other words, it refers to the ability to access or reach needed services or activities. Good mobility does not automatically provide good accessibility [3]. A well-linked (=connectivity) and short-time (=proximity) access are the parameters for good accessibility. Hence the need for a good mobility policy , through a political process, that selects one or various types of transport services to meet this need for mobility. Eventually we retain the term mobility policy to designate the policies studied as it summe

2- The urban planning studies approach:

2-1 Definition of urban planning studies: Urban planning (city planning, town planning, urban design) is a field of study that focuses on the design and regulation of the uses of space. It concentrates on the physical form, economic functions, and social impacts of the urban environment and the location of different activities within it (Fainstein, 2021).

2-2 Situating the urban planning in urban studies: a. Definition of urban studies

Urban studies are the umbrella for several linked disciplines concentrating on the studies of the city, including sociology, geography, economics, political science, anthropology, urban planning, architecture, and urban design.

Each of these disciplines is interested in urbanisation and metropolitan dynamics. With each a distinctive interpretation of the city, they study the links between cities and their governance, their spatial structure, and the larger economy (Urban Studies, 2022).

Figure 5: Various disciplines that are linked around the urban studies theme. Made by the author.

b. The urban planning situated in the urban studies Urban studies comprise many perspectives, approaches, and disciplines that suggest various policies to deal with the challenges of the city.

There are two main approaches to treating each facet of the city (Padisson, 2001):

• Locational analyses and studies of the systems approach • Socio-cultural and institutional approach These two approaches study the city and subjects related to the urban planning field. The first approach is concerned with spatial relationships and network studies which coincide with the study of urban planning on mobility, and accessibility. While the second approach is among other things interested in social areas and ethnographic studies which can find its terrain in the different urban land uses and city spaces defined by urban planning analysis and studies. The following graphic demonstrates the link between these approaches and urban planning studies.

Figure 6 : Scheme summarising different approaches to the study of cities. The graphic was made by the author based on the work of Padisson (2001)

2-3 The urban planning studies approach to the impact of the private automobile and transport on the city With concern on the organisation and composition of cities, several scholars and researchers have investigated the impact of transport on the urban form, particularly the subject of the space dedicated to the private automobile in the city. If some like Gabriel Dupuy (2000) and Pope (2015) described the rise of the automobile as linked to suburbanisation, many scholars nowadays such as Peter Newman (1999) inquire about the impacts of this technology on the cities and the urban fabric. Newman (1999) tackles in his book "Sustainability and cities: overcoming automobile" the domination of the

private automobile. He sets the ground for the understanding of the process of growth of the city from a walking city to a transit city to finally becoming a city designed around the automobile. As he explains, the beginning of the 20th century knew a sort of coexistence of the three typologies of movement methods (walking, transit, automobile), the second part of it saw a dominance of the private automobile, not only physically but also socially. A phenomenon is also well described in Pope's book Ladders (2015) where he exposes the urban paradigm surrounding the ownership of private automobiles. If Pope's work and theories take as a context American urbanism, it reveals nevertheless the disruptive power of the automobile by modifying the urban fabric of the core of cities as well as creating suburban enclaves disconnected from the cities.

In their book, Peter Newman, and Jeffrey Kenworthy (2015) define primarily the features of the theory of urban fabrics in terms of areas, elements, functions, and qualities. This first step provides a study grid with which they constructed their methodology to address automobile dependency. A theoretical beacon that is completed with various examples of cities with best practices in regenerating urban fabric to overcome the dominance of the automobile. All in all, this body of literature is taking inking in the urban studies field. They describe and analyse the urban dynamics and indicate possible responses. They reveal the importance of understanding the nature of the contemporary city and the process of its formation. This first step would serve as the contextual anchor for the following work depicting the multiple studies surrounding the challenges of "an after-car city" or "an after-car urbanism".

Figure 7 The Automobile City, Transit City and Walking City, based on an original diagram from Newman and Kenworthy (1999).