Tomorrow's cities aim to be safe and inclusive, and mobility is a key component. Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) provides a framework to understand how urban settings support and frustrate psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), with potential implications for well-being, perceived risk, and the inclusion of vulnerable and active users.
This study investigates how the perceived quality of urban infrastructure influences the satisfaction and frustration of the three basic psychological needs. The focus is on identifying which environmental elements most strongly affect needs and how this relates to perceived risk and well-being.
A survey was conducted in France between June and August 2025 (N = 1,351), including sighted pedestrians (n = 500), visually impaired pedestrians (n = 105), cyclists (n = 246), and car drivers (n = 500). Constructs were measured on 7-point Likert scales, and analyses rely on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM).
Our preliminary analyses on sighted pedestrians and car drivers show mixed results according to which basic need is considered. Perceived infrastructure quality appears pivotal to feeling autonomous and competent for both user categories, with high-quality infrastructure strongly supporting satisfaction and decreasing frustration of both needs. In contrast, perceived infrastructure quality poorly contributes to the satisfaction or frustration of the need for relatedness, which questions the capacity of current urban design to foster a collective rather than an individual mobility experience and behavior.
Applying SDT to mobility reveals which basic psychological needs are most unsatisfied and frustrated, and how urban design shapes mobility experiences. These findings may lead to actionable insights for designing collective and inclusive urban environments likely to create a mindful atmosphere between road users, to convey social identity or social bound between and within road users' categories, advancing both theory and practice in sustainable and equitable urban mobility.