Homepage
Working Group 5

Working Group 5

Evaluating and Contextualising Transportation in Community Mobility

Description

Working Group 5 (WG5), “Evaluating and Contextualising Transportation in Community Mobility,” strengthens BOPALiM’s capacity to generate comparable, practice-ready evidence across diverse European settings. Transportation systems, built environments, and sociocultural norms vary widely; without context-sensitive evaluation and harmonised tools, findings remain fragmented and difficult to translate into policy and practice.

WG5 will coordinate the co-design, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of tools that capture how people access, navigate and participate in their communities via public transport and other modes. This new group aligns closely with the WG3 topic-wise but will focus on the evaluation of community mobility. Co-design will be organised through a variety of approaches, such as iterative workshops, interviews and testing sessions with key actors (e.g., older adults, people with disabilities, caregivers, clinicians, transport operators, municipalities and community organisations). It will focus on both what is measured (types of trips, modes, places, participation outcomes) and how it is measured (linguistic, cultural, and system-level fit). These processes will identify what “matters” in everyday mobility.

Cross-cultural adaptation will follow rigorous, standardised procedures, including multi-step translation (forward and backward translation, expert panel review), cognitive debriefing with users in each context, and systematic documentation of cultural and system-level differences This will ensure that tools are not only linguistically accurate but also conceptually equivalent and sensitive to diverse transport ecologies (urban/rural, high/low resources, different legal frameworks).

Validation will combine qualitative and quantitative approaches, including, for example: assessing content and face validity with experts and end-users; testing reliability (stability, internal consistency); and examining construct validity and sensitivity to change in multi-site pilots.

Aims

  • Review tools on community mobility and appraise them.
  • Co-design, cross-culturally adapt and translate community-mobility and participation tools to multiple languages and contexts, using transparent, replicable procedures for content/face validity and reliability testing.
  • Produce a practical toolkit (which may include, for example, protocols, translation/adaptation guidelines, interview and survey templates, and user manuals).
  • Create knowledge-translation activities focusing on community mobility assessment, like workshops with stakeholders and clinicians, and other educational outputs, supporting implementation in practice and planning with support from WG4.

Expected contributions

WG5 will improve the quality, comparability and contextual relevance of assessment tools in community mobility and transportation. It will accelerate knowledge translation into inclusive transport planning and occupational therapy practice, and establish a sustainable, open repository of instruments, procedures and resources to support ongoing and future BOPALiM studies and implementations. By embedding co-design, cross-cultural adaptation and robust validation at the heart of its work, WG5 will help ensure that evidence on community mobility is genuinely responsive to the lived realities of diverse populations and transport systems across Europe.

Leaders

Sophie Nadia Gaber

WG5 Leader

Uppsala University

Sweden

Associate Senior Lecturer and Assistant Professor in the CIRCLE – Complex Intervention Research in Health and Care group, at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Uppsala University (UU), Uppsala, Sweden. She is a registered occupational therapist, teacher, and researcher. Her research focuses on community participation among older adults living with and without dementia, and intersectionality, using participatory approaches and instrument development.

Teodora Popović

WG5 Co-Leader

Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Montenegro

Montenegro

Graduate Civil Engineer and Teaching Associate in the Department of Roads, at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Montenegro in Podgorica, Montenegro. She is a civil engineer, teacher, and researcher. Her research focuses on the spatial and urban dimensions of mobility, particularly the built environment as a key factor that enables or constrains mobility. Her work aims to enhance existing mobility models and develop more appropriate solutions for a humane urban environment by improving traffic safety, efficiency, and overall mobility, ultimately contributing to a higher quality of urban life.
Get Involved