Transport scholars have treated policy processes, social practices, and systemic changes in transport somewhat separately, whereas these phenomena have complex spatiotemporal relationships.

The special issue of Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift–Norwegian Journal of Geography conceptualises transitions to sustainable transport systems in spatiotemporal terms – analytically, empirically, and ontologically. It addresses the integration of these domains in social science research, drawing on empirical observations of complex socio-technical changes, and on a review of literature too often compartmentalised into a few established heuristic modes.

This overview synthesises insights across the six featured articles, arguing for interlinked adjustments across the temporal dimensions of policy, practice and innovation levels of transport systems, and highlighting the need to theorise the study of place-based temporalities. It advances a case to unpack four key aspects of mobility transitions: their diverse temporalities, their spatiality and place, equity and accessibility in mobility systems, and human and non-human learning in socio-technical transitions.