Tomorrow’s mobility will focus on individual needs

With 82% of the population living in cities or towns by 2050, ‘mass transit’ will be a must. However, in order to convince people to abandon certain modes of individual transport that pollute and/or congest cities, tomorrow’s mobility will, paradoxically, have to adapt to the individual and no longer just the collective. Whereas in the past, transport was viewed more in terms of flow management, mobility will indeed focus on the needs of individuals for the duration of their journeys – from start to finish. Notions such as health, well-being, freedom, experience, and safety… will lie at the heart of mobility of the future.

This ‘user-centric’ approach is all the more difficult since travellers form a heterogeneous population – students, workers, senior citizens, parents at home, people with reduced mobility, etc. – whose behaviour and needs differ, including within the same category. There are also behavioural differences from one day to the next, even if peak periods remain essentially the same. In Lyon, for example, 18,000 travelcard subscribers out of 50,000 who took the metro on Monday won’t use it on Tuesday. But they will be replaced by a roughly equivalent number of Tuesday travellers who weren’t there the day before! Lastly, it should also be noted that mobility is often more occasional than we may think. A 2015 study^(a) of major train stations in Paris showed that, depending on the station, 20% to 56% of TER, Intercités, and TGV passengers used them occasionally for business or leisure. These passengers therefore need the best possible assistance. Signage and digital travel assistance help make connections easier.

A trial in Jordan^(b) where there were no transport maps revealed that digitisation of bus and taxi routes – carried out by citizens themselves – has led to an upturn in use of these public transport services.

So with regards mass transport modes, mobility industrials must address the challenge of providing high-performance services for a great many people that also meet the need for hyper-personalised journeys.

Digital, innovation, and using data will be powerful drivers of these different use cases. On-demand mobility and intelligent transport systems, for instance, provide greater flexibility and personalisation opportunities, even for door-to-door trips. However, use of digital technology is at different maturity levels and this must be factored in. Tomorrow’s digital solutions must therefore make it possible to improve the daily lives of people while remaining inclusive.

Footnotes:

^a study by the French government, Île-de-France region, SNCF, STIF (now Île-de-France Mobilités) and RATP / March 2015

^b http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/map-outlines-public-transport-routes-amman