Urban mobility is an integral component of city life and its associated infrastructure is crucial in shaping its form. Urban residents made 7.5 billion trips every day in 2005; by 2050 this figure could triple or quadruple depending on infrastructure availability and energy price trends.
E-commerce and last-mile delivery services have added complexity to urban freight operations, prompting many companies to examine how best they can manage them.
Mobility as a Service (MaaS)
MaaS brings together various forms of transportation services into one seamless interface for journey planning, scheduling, and payment. These services may include public transit, conventional taxi/shuttle services, private sector companies offering shared mobility or e-mobility solutions as well as technology providers like Cubic Telecom that offer route optimisation software solutions for MaaS ecosystem.
Maas services may be less costly than owning and operating a vehicle because they provide relief from fuel costs, maintenance, insurance premiums, fees and taxes, plus paying both short-term and long-term parking fees. They also often include walking/cycling options leading to transport hubs.
MaaS can make transport more accessible for people who cannot afford personal vehicles or are unable to drive due to age or disability, yet its implementation requires vision from government for it to achieve accessibility and inclusion goals. Furthermore, pricing reform needs to address economic efficiency, social equity and sustainability as societal objectives.
Multimodal transport
Traffic congestion and air pollution are becoming serious problems in cities worldwide. Traffic fatalities average 3,287 daily while emissions from transport increase at an alarming rate. A conventional solution has been to expand roadway capacity – however this approach will likely fail in its goal of reducing congestion or traffic deaths and emissions.
An environmentally-friendly alternative to driving would be providing sustainable travel planning services, like Interreg project cities.multimodal did. This project presented various mobility options as well as providing a smartphone-based travel planning service.
Multimodal transportation encompasses multiple transport modes such as buses, trams, trains, ferries and cars. It also incorporates walking and biking infrastructure and supports development density near transit stations compared to traditional land use planning practices; unlike its counterpart, however, multimodal planning establishes contingency plans as well as open lines of communication with carriers.
Smart cities
Smart traffic lights use data to adjust timing and vehicle spacing to prevent traffic congestion, while public transit systems can operate more efficiently with help from smart technology. Smart city projects aim to develop sustainable mobility ecosystems which take into account environmental considerations as well as urban residents’ needs.
Smart city initiatives often focus on improving air quality by reducing vehicle emissions. Furthermore, these efforts also work to decrease traffic congestion – saving billions of hours and improving quality of life for residents and visitors alike.
Smart mobility solutions can do more than reduce congestion; they can also stimulate economic development in cities. Platforms allowing travelers to purchase tickets for various forms of public transit can make city travel more efficient while opening up opportunities for investments; it is key that these investments are well designed and supported by robust data, as well as informing citizens about their benefits.
Mobility as a right
Every day, approximately 7.5 billion journeys take place in urban areas around the globe, impacting their infrastructure in unavoidably shaping urban form and air pollution as major issues.
Urban mobility also affects health and economic opportunity for a growing number of people. Commuting time often makes up a substantial portion of people’s working day in many cities.
Effective urban mobility planning can alleviate these challenges, by cutting energy use and emissions while simultaneously optimizing time spent commuting to work each day.
In the past, the typical response to urban transportation challenges was to build new roads for cars – yet this only increases congestion and travel times further. A better solution is prioritizing public transport while using innovative technologies to enhance quality of life for city residents by prioritizing walking and cycling over driving as part of sustainable, affordable mobility solutions.