Navigating sustainable mobility and healthy neighbourhood spatial design in a contested planning context: lessons from ENKA’s transformative modelling process

Neighbourhood mobility transitions sit at the intersection of infrastructure, policy decisions, and systems approaches. This paper reports a process in Ede, the Netherlands that combined group model building and an agent-based model to explore how parking reallocation, shared cars, and parking pricing can reduce car dependence while improving public space and health. The study used exploratory interviews, multi-stakeholder workshops, and a neighbourhood survey, then simulated household travel choices under single and combined measures. Results show that reallocating a substantial share of parking is a necessary condition for mode shift, and that mixing incentives with restrictions outperforms single measures. Sensitivity analysis identifies value of time and the preference–utility trade-off as dominant drivers of outcomes. Process findings show how polarisation and motonormativity can undermine collaboration unless framings are adjusted and municipal leadership is needed to translate insights into action. We offer design principles for practice: maintain a committed stakeholder core; secure proactive institutional ownership; pivot to real-world transition experiments when broad participation is not yet viable; and extend models to quantify co-benefits such as health, safety, and green space. The case demonstrates how transformative modelling can structure dialogue, reveal process limitations, and inform thinking about neighbourhood-scale mobility and spatial design interventions.Practitioner pointsTreat participation as an iterative learning process. Use workshops and models to explore options together and resist the sometimes politically driven urge to persuade people of a predetermined solution. Test ideas through small pilot projects, learn from community feedback, and adapt plans before making large-scale decisions.Establish explicit political commitment to an open participation process before, and during the group model building exercise. Reversely, communicate with the stakeholders clearly about the status of the process outcomes in the political decision making process afterwards.Plan for disagreement from the start and actively recruit a balanced group of participants. Use neutral language, involve residents with different backgrounds, travel behaviours, and opinions. Mobility projects can quickly shift from technical discussions to polarised debates about values and identity. If important voices are missing, consider postponing participation rather than proceeding with an unrepresentative group.