Urban Green Infrastructure, Travel Choices, and Sustainable Mobility: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Urban green infrastructure and the wider built environment jointly shape travel choices, yet evidence is distributed across green-space, active-travel, accessibility, and travel-demand research. This systematic review re-audited a Scopus RIS export dated 19 November 2025 and supplementary citation records using PRISMA 2020, restricting eligibility to studies published between 2021 and 2025. The identification stage contained 249 records (215 from Scopus and 34 from citation checking); after two duplicates were removed, 247 titles and abstracts were screened, 70 full texts were assessed, 43 were excluded, and 27 primary studies were synthesized. A study-level matrix coded geography, design, environmental exposure, mobility outcome, direction of evidence, and methodological quality. The sample comprised 10 quantitative studies (37.0%), 16 mixed-methods or spatial-modeling studies (59.3%), and one qualitative or policy study (3.7%). Europe contributed nine studies, Asia 12, North America four, and Oceania two, with no included study located in Africa or Latin America. Eighteen studies reported supportive associations, six reported conditional or mixed associations, and three provided weak or indirect evidence. Greenways, street greenery, walkable urban form, destination accessibility, and integration with transit or shared mobility were most consistently associated with active and sustainable travel when connected to daily travel networks, whereas evidence for direct reductions in motorized travel distance remained limited. The synthesis traces a pathway in which planning shapes environmental inputs, those inputs influence travel through accessibility, comfort, safety, and route quality, and observed travel outcomes in turn inform subsequent investment, design, and maintenance decisions.