Mobility isn’t just about getting from A to B — it’s the mirror of a city, showing who can fully participate in daily life and who is left behind. Across our global network, partner-driven initiatives are reimagining what’s possible when transport is designed around people: buses move more efficiently, fare-free rides unlock opportunities for women and marginalized communities, and streets become safer, more welcoming, and less polluted for everyone. These examples show that the right mobility choices don’t just move people — they reflect the kind of city we aspire to be, one grounded in fairness, connection, sustainability, and shared opportunity.

🇲🇾 Malaysia — Safer Streets as a Foundation for Everyday Mobility

In Petaling Jaya, a community-driven Safer Streets pilot led by Bike Commute Malaysia — with local authorities and representatives — is rethinking the streets around a school and nearby LRT station to make daily travel safer and more accessible for pedestrians. By identifying risks and proposing practical fixes such as raised crossings, refuge islands, speed bumps, and protective barriers, the initiative strengthens safety for students, residents, and micromobility users, ensuring smoother connections to public transport. Grounded in community feedback, the project shows how streets designed around people can support everyday mobility and mirror the kind of city Petaling Jaya aims to be.

🇵🇱 Poland — Freeing Buses Improves Air Quality and Commutes

In Warsaw, the Clean Cities Campaign’s Free the Buses! initiative shows how prioritizing public transport can improve air quality, speed up commutes, and make cities fairer. Buses carry nearly half of all public transport passengers in the capital, yet too often get stuck in traffic — a daily reminder of car dependence. At the centre of the campaign is the winged bus, soaring above Warsaw’s congestion, symbolizing how public transport can lift the city above pollution and delays. The initiative’s report lays out a cost-effective vision for priority bus lanes that would cut emissions, improve health, and make daily journeys faster. Free the Buses! reflects how smart transport policy can improve both daily life and the city’s overall well-being.

🇮🇳 India — Fare-Free Bus Travel Expands Opportunities for Women

Across India, states are showing that free and subsidized bus travel can be a powerful act of care — one that expands safety, opportunity, and independence for women. A recent multi-state study from the Sustainable Mobility Network and Nikore Associates, Beyond Free Rides, found that in states like Karnataka, where women travel free on city buses, employment among women rose by over 20%, and many saved up to half of their monthly transport costs. These savings ripple outward into education, healthcare, and household stability. In India, these schemes reflect how transport access can unlock dignity, opportunity, and economic freedom for women.

🇮🇳 India — Doubling City Buses Improves Access and Reliability

The Double The Bus initiative calls for urgent investment in India’s public bus systems to ensure transport is affordable, accessible, and sustainable for all. Partners advocate for doubling city bus fleets in Tier I, II, and III cities by 2030, modernizing systems, and prioritizing safety and accessibility. This inclusive and non-partisan campaign focuses on solutions and collaboration to build stronger public transport systems that center people, especially marginalized communities. Double The Bus reflects how coordinated, people-centered transport planning can make urban mobility fairer and more reliable for everyone.

🇺🇸 United States — Zero-Fare Buses Ensure Mobility as a Right

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, our partners at the Labor Network for Sustainability lead the Transit Equity Network, supporting community groups advocating for transit justice, including Together for Brothers, which helped secure and sustain the city’s Zero Fares policy, making it the largest U.S. city where everyone can ride public buses for free. The initiative covers both regular bus routes and paratransit services for people with disabilities — ensuring no one is left behind. In Missoula, Montana, fare-free buses are already part of daily life, making public transport safer, more inclusive, and more widely used. These initiatives show that when mobility is treated as a right, cities reflect communities where everyone can move safely, freely, and without barriers.

🇧🇷 Brazil — Fare-Free Transit Strengthens Equity and Sustainability

In Brazil, public transport became a constitutional social right in 2015, yet mobility is still far from equal. Even with this legal guarantee, transport remains expensive and inaccessible for millions, especially Black women, caregivers, and low-income families. This is why fare-free transit must move beyond isolated municipal initiatives and become a national policy. From the June 2013 uprisings to campaigns like Passe Livre pela Democracia, the streets pushed this debate back into the center of public life. Today, more than 130 cities operate fully fare-free systems, and the evidence is clear: zero fares expand rights, reduce inequalities, and strengthen local economies. As the Federal Government evaluates a national fare-free policy in 2025, Instituto Pólis and the Triple Zero Mobility Coalition advance a vision built on zero fares, zero emissions, and zero traffic deaths. It is time to turn this agenda into state policy so that mobility in Brazil can finally mirror the right guaranteed in the Constitution.

Communities everywhere are showing that transforming mobility — through safer streets, stronger public transport, or fare-free access — improves lives and reflects the values of the city itself. As cities explore next steps, discussions are opening around affordable, fare-free transport, the political opportunities that make change possible, and practical steps to ensure these systems endure. Together, we’re building streets for people, not pollution — a mirror of cities that value fairness, connection, sustainability, and opportunity for all.