The impact of social change Society has moved from an emphasis on social support to one of individualism, which has widened the gap between the mobility rich and poor and exacerbated problems arising from ‘mobility poverty’. New trends in active and social mobility is expected to positively impact social development. If mobility freedoms are socially desirable outcomes, how interlinked are social and mobility futures? • At a community level, mobility deprivation exacerbates social tensions. • Social and mobility futures will be inseparable, mixing physical and virtual environments in the new age of competition and success in the free market.• The gap between mobility rich and poor widened as society placed more emphasis on the individual.• Social forces play the major role in determining mobility patterns and the way people mould their identities and form values. Social forces in mobility futures Much of the work in MIND-SETS has focused on the interplay between mobility and society. It has underlined that social forces play the major role in determining mobility patterns and the way people mould their identities and form values. The social dynamic is strongly entwined with people’s mobile lives – in thinking and in action – physical and virtual – physical and mental. Society has moved from an emphasis on social support to one of individual responsibility. This has served to widen the gap in society between the mobility rich and poor. Mobility has an important impact on the primary mental and physical problems facing society – loneliness, fear of abandonment, agoraphobia, obesity, sedentary behaviour etc. Expanded to whole communities, mobility deprivation exacerbates social tensions and continues to provoke social disorder. Conversely, we can see that mobility initiatives can work to achieve positive social change and improved health conditions. New trends in active mobility, personalised mobility services to meet the specific needs of minority groups, the new mobility sharing culture will all have positive impacts on social development; harnessing the benefits of information technology. In the current enthusiasm to investigate those mobility innovations popular with the new digital generations, the importance of an ageing society can easily be forgotten. While the ‘older’ generation are more mobile than ever (‘Babybloomers’), the ‘oldest’ generation requires social support for their mobility needs. Ironically the characteristic features of personalised, customised mobility developed for this group over the last 50 years are now the same mobility features popular with the digital generations. Social change has been rapid in recent decades, with new family and kinship networks, changing roles of individuals within society. The pace of technological innovation is faster and faster. A mobility rich population, unwilling to forego the mobility freedoms with age and with young digital generations with different value sets which demand new types of mobility – a new world where transport modes become attachments to smartphones; and the whole locus of mobility control and seamless movement transfers to the user. Social futures and mobile futures will be inseparable; mixing physical and virtual environments in the new age of competition and (personal and social) success in the free market. Mobility freedoms are socially desirable provided, they are well managed, show moderation and self-control, respect the principle of sustainability and are available to all – for future society in Europe, this is the challenge.