Shaping the Future of Mobility

Preamble

The world’s population is expected to reach 10 billion by 2050, and mobility systems are being overstretched. This blog presents the challenges of urban mobility while analysing the future of transport in the aftermath of COVID-19. The blog also presents how cities can overcome their transport problems by incorporating a central system of data-driven transport.

Research Questions

1. What is the future of mobility after COVID-19?

2. How cities can overcome their transport problems?

Introduction

A safer, cleaner and more inclusive system of mobility is essential to providing access to jobs, education, healthcare, and trade. The world population is estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050 and in face of this rapid growth, mobility systems in megacities are being overstretched while rural areas are falling behind. Latest technologies like autonomous vehicles, biometrics, and drones are creating opportunities to transform mobility by enabling innovative business models and mobility services for changing demographics. It is the need of the hour to bring the world’s major mobility companies together with key stakeholders across all sectors to create mobility systems and guidelines that meet 21st-century demands.

The Future of Commuting and COVID-19

According to a survey, 83 percent of people currently working from home would prefer not to go back to the office due to fear of COVID-19 (Gillean, 2020). Returning to work could also cause a surge in vehicle usage and have a negative effect on the environment. The continuous progression of COVID-19 has made many businesses postpone their back-to-office dates and major companies have rolled out a number of commuting policies. According to some environmental researchers, due to unprecedented low-carbon levels, stay-at-home orders can be followed by increased car usage as white-collar workers in densely populated urban areas attempt to evade public transport (Hoyer, 2020). Companies based on the knowledge and innovation model have the least to gain from a permanent work-from-home structure as a significant amount of creativity and innovation is lost without face-to-face interaction, so there is an incentive to get back to work.  Also, a permanent work-from-home model has led to prices of housing going up, spurred gentrification, driving out long-term residents, and increased homelessness rates. Therefore, it is evident that transportation will slowly recover to its pre-pandemic state and increase the appeal for public transportation.

How Cities Can Overcome Transport Problems

By 2030, 750 million people will be living in megacities around the world, and growing urban populations put pressure on already ageing and inadequate transportation systems. People are increasingly migrating from rural to urban areas. This growing population and inefficient transport systems are spawning congestion and hobbling productivity. Inadequate transport systems also jeopardise the health and exacerbate social inequality by restricting access to education, jobs, and healthcare. The solution to problems of urban mobility depends on shared-mobility solutions, creating an effective system that understands consumer expectations. Another answer to the urban mobility problem is to imagine the transport system with a central orchestrator. This will enable an integrated mobility management system that consolidates data from all public and private travel modes as well as from the city’s transport infrastructure. This data can later be used to develop a user interface that can act as a mobility platform that combines all transport options in the city, making it easier to manage the system and introduce efficiency standards across all platforms. It will also be possible for users to book a customized trip involving multiple nodes through a single interface, with the most efficient journey based on the data from several different platforms combined. (WEF, 2020)

Conclusion

A safer, cleaner, and more inclusive system of mobility is essential to providing access to jobs, education, healthcare, and trade. Returning to work in the aftermath of COVID-19 could also cause a surge in vehicle usage and have a negative effect on the environment. Therefore, the solution to problems of urban mobility depends on creating an effective system that understands consumer expectations and helps in planning and executing of trips with incorporated data from several different transport platforms.

Key Takeaways

1. A safer, cleaner and more inclusive system of mobility is essential to providing access to jobs, education, healthcare, and trade.

2. Global population is estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050 and in face of this rapid growth, mobility systems in megacities are being overstretched while rural areas are falling behind.

3. Latest technologies like autonomous vehicles, biometrics, and drones are creating opportunities to transform mobility by enabling innovative business models and mobility services for changing demographics.

4. According to a survey, 83 percent of people currently working from home would prefer not to go back to the office due to fear of COVID-19.

Bibliography

Gillean, K. (2020). July Is the New January: More Companies Delay Return to the Office. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/technology/offices-reopening-delay-coronavirus.html

Hoyer, S. (2020). Chicago Loop Alliance: More residents are using private cars to commute downtown. Retrieved from StreetsBlog Chicago: https://chi.streetsblog.org/2020/10/14/chicago-loop-alliance-more-residents-are-using-private-cars-to-commute-downtown/

PwC. (2021). It’s time to reimagine where and how work will get done. Retrieved from PWC United States: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/library/covid-19/us-remote-work-survey.html

WEF. (2020). This is how cities can overcome their growing transport pains. Retrieved from World Economic Forum : https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/this-is-how-to-overcome-cities-growing-mobility-pains/