Sustainable Cities Without Sustainable Citizens?The Behavioural Blind Spot in Urban Air Pollution Policies – An Empirical Study

Abstract

Air pollution is one of the major global problems in today's world. It damages how cities are sustainable, takes away working and studying life, and ruins human health. Despite technology and policy supports, both PM2.5 and PM10 exceed the WHO limit in major cities globally. This paper claims that sustainable cities need sustainable citizens. An online survey is carried out to analyse the impact of citizen behaviour on urban issues. It discusses awareness, perceived risk, travel behaviour, rule obedience willingness, and trust regarding mobility. A total of 1,200 people from 12 major cities are located in Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa. Findings are that the success of policies highly depends on people's behaviour. To involve citizens in the fight against air pollution, the concept of behavioural governance will be introduced. The study represents a contribution to SDG 11: Sustainable Cities.