Feature

Mobility, power and access

part of Same same but different: mobility and spatial justice in Tallinn and Bangkok

Feature

Mobility, power and access

Mobility networks promise freedom. Yet within the same city, movement can feel seamless for some and slow, risky and constrained for others.

Shimin Huang, Chloe Pottinger-Glass / Published on 16 March 2026

The Same same but different series explores mobility and spatial justice in Tallinn and Bangkok and is part of SEI’s research program on sustainable transport. This chapter contrasts mobility as comfort with mobility as constraint.

Mobility can produce radically different experiences within the same city. For some, movement feels seamless and empowering. For others, it is slow, risky and limited. The street is where power is exercised, experienced, and contested every day.

We asked:

Which transport mode dominates the city?
Who relies most on walking, cycling and public transport?
How accessible is mobility across the city?
Which emerging alternatives enable movement beyond private cars, and who benefits or is left out?

Tallinn: car comfort, uneven innovation

Tallinn’s urban form still reflects decades of car-oriented planning. Cars move through the city with ease, autonomy and confidence. Massive parking lots remain the default around many shopping centres and public buildings. Pedestrians and cyclists must navigate risks, long distances and fragmented routes not designed with them in mind.

A woman on a bicycle is driving on a crosswalk, SUVs are waiting for her to cross. — Cyclist crossing a heavy-traffic crosswalk.

Photo: Anette Parksepp / SEI.

The recent rise of shared e-mobility, including e-bikes, e-scooters and e-mopeds, promises low-carbon flexibility and fills first- and last-mile gaps. Yet this new freedom is unevenly distributed. These services are most accessible to the young, digitally literate and physically able, and to those with smartphones, online banking access and reliable data connections.

A far-away view of residential buildings. The sidewalk in front of one of the buildings is lined from both sides with rental scooters. — Rental e-scooters and mopeds surrounding a shared-use sidewalk.

Photo: Anette Parksepp / SEI

For some, e-mobility offers alternative freedom. For others, it creates new conflicts: sidewalks cluttered with scooters, fast riding on pavements (sometimes under the influence of alcohol), teenagers sharing a single scooter, and competing operators lacking coordinated parking or charging systems. Regulations, planning and enforcement have not yet kept pace, leaving Tallinn suspended between mobility innovation and mobility justice.

Two teenage boys are driving on a sidewalk with an e-scooter and passing a pedestrian. — Teenagers riding an e-scooter together, which is forbidden.

Photo: Anette Parksepp / SEI

Bangkok: mixed streets, unequal risk

Bangkok’s streets balance vibrant mixed use with a challenging and often dangerous reality. Street vendors and motorcycle taxi drivers compete for space, while pedestrians navigate inadequate sidewalks. Road traffic fatalities remain among the highest in the world.

Cars and rollers wait behind a long crosswalk on a congested street. A few rollers have driven on the crosswalk. Three people are walking along the long crosswalk. — Moving in a car-centric environment as a pedestrian can mean risking health and comfort.

Photo: Johanna Lehtmets / SEI

The city is polycentric: main roads connect to dense networks of small connector streets (sois) that frequently become bottlenecks. Limited public transport coverage and weak first- and last-mile connections mean the car remains king, while severe congestion shapes daily life for millions of commuters.

A night view of Bangkok where cards drive on the street below and people walk along an overpass above. — In populated cities like Bangkok, people must navigate moving on different levels.

Photo: Johanna Lehtmets / SEI

Recent bicycle rental initiatives have struggled: stations are placed besides busy highways and lack supporting infrastructure. Cycling on Bangkok’s main roads remains an activity reserved for the brave, or the foolish.

A cyclist is resting his foot on a curb, waiting to continue his path, which is filled with cars. — Cycling in car-centric environments can be dangerous.

Photo: Johanna Lehtmets / SEI

Thre green rental bicycles are parked sideways on a sidewalk. — Rental bicycles are parked on the already narrow streets.

Photo: Johanna Lehtmets / SEI

Across both cities, mobility is not distributed equally. Streets reveal power in motion – shaping who arrives with ease and who must struggle to reach the same destination.