How do young people view the options for urban transport, and what prevents them from choosing sustainable modes of transport? These are among the questions being explored by researchers at the ELTE PPK Institute for People-Environment Transaction as part of the NextGenMobility international research and development project, which aims to support the creation of more liveable and sustainable cities by building on the needs of young people.

Launched on 1 January, 2026, NextGenMobility – Shaping inclusive and sustainable urban mobility by building on young people’s perceptions of transport, is an initiative aimed at helping cities to better understand young people’s mobility needs and develop more sustainable transport systems using new, evidence-based methods.

Researchers from the Institute of People-Environment Transaction at the ELTE Faculty of Education and Psychology are also taking part in the project. Their task is to develop new measurement tools to help explore young people’s transport experiences, attitudes and the barriers that may prevent them from using low-emission modes of transport. The researchers’ work is led by Andrea Dúll, Director of the Institute and university professor; two members of the Environmental Psychology Research Group – Bálint Balázs, research assistant, and Iván Zsolt Berze, university lecturer – are also taking part in the project.

One of the new features of this 30-month project is that

it involves young people in the development of urban mobility not merely as a target group, but as active partners.

The research employs environmental psychology, data-driven and geoinformatics methods to explore young people’s mobility habits and the factors that influence their transport choices.

The resulting knowledge base will help urban decision-makers to base developments on genuine needs and local characteristics, thereby creating more liveable and safer urban transport solutions. The methods developed are being tested and evaluated in three European cities with the involvement of local transport operators, educational institutions, civil society organisations and young people: in Nyíregyháza, Hungary, in Oradea, Romania, and in Bram, France.

The project is being carried out as part of the Driving Urban Transitions European partnership, which is one of the flagship initiatives of the Horizon Europe programme. The Hungarian consortium is receiving funding of 117 million forints from the National Research, Development and Innovation Office. The consortium is led by MEGAKOM Strategic Consultancy Ltd., with the Local Government of Nyíregyháza (a city with county rights) and ELTE PPK EKTI as its professional partners. The Hungarian collaboration operates as part of an international consortium in which Austrian, French, Hungarian and Romanian universities and local authorities are working together.