Alem Tedeneke, Media Lead, World Economic Forum: Tel.: +1 646 204 9191; Email: ated@weforum.org
New York, USA, 17 March 2020 – The pace of technology has generated tremendous opportunity to rethink how people get around cities. The growing use of electric scooters and ride-hailing services is transforming how we move in urban centres. The World Economic Forum’s new Guidelines for City Mobility: Steering towards collaboration contains evidence-based planning and design guidelines that help cities and mobility partners create a sustainable, ethical and inclusive urban transport system.
According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs by 2050 an additional 2.5 billion people will live in cities. As cities grow, the demand for mobility increases. The Guidelines for City Mobility: Steering towards collaboration provides eight practical guidelines – from data-sharing to multimodal integration – that help establish, develop and strengthen partnerships between cities and mobility partners.
“The guidelines provide a great opportunity for cities and mobility partners to improve transportation networks and propel the journey to seamless, electric and autonomous mobility systems.” Remarked Christoph Wolff, Head of Shaping the Future of Mobility, World Economic Forum LLC, USA “It is encouraging that cities and mobility partners are working more closely together to create equitable and viable mobility systems keeping users at the forefront.”
The speed of innovation occurring in transport requires cities to adapt quickly, balancing the need to promote innovation with accountability to urban dwellers. Integrating developing technologies responsibly is about more than mitigating risks; policy-makers are presented with an opportunity to rethink how urban transport functions.
The guidelines cover a breadth of topics necessary for cities and mobility partners to align and overcome resistance to change. With each innovation, new complexity is added to the transport system, and current governance frameworks are not designed to adequately address these new concerns.
“Governments around the world are being confronted with new players who challenge the status quo, often by introducing new technologies. Such developments create new opportunities and possibilities, but for municipalities, it also means drafting new rules to cover the ways in which those players can operate within their borders” said Sharon Dijksma, Deputy Mayor for Traffic and Transport, Water, and Air Quality of Amsterdam, Netherlands. “I am pleased to present this Guidelines for City Mobility: Steering towards collaboration. We hope it can serve as a guide to cities around the world, helping them shape cooperation in the best possible way.”
Rather than reflexively restricting new mobility partners entering the urban landscape, cities should pre-emptively modify existing structures to enable adaptable, creative and flexible regulation in anticipation of changes in mobility.
“These guidelines offer a great roadmap for how cities and Uber can work together to help reduce private car ownership and improve mobility for all. We believe we all have a shared responsibility to make our platforms safe, equitable and complementary to the public vision for cities we operate in. We look forward to continuing to work with the World Economic Forum and cities to bring these guidelines to fruition in the years ahead." Said Shin-pei Tsay, Director, Policy for Cities and Transportation, Uber, USA.
“The smooth flow of people and freight underpin a vibrant city. Singapore’s government takes a collaborative approach, demonstrated through our tripartite relationship between the government, business and unions. One example is the close partnership we adopted with the various stakeholders, including public transport operators, suppliers, educators, fellow government agencies, and unions in developing the land transport industry transformation map for 2040.” Shared Wee Shann Lam, Chief Innovation and Transport Technology Officer, Land Transport Authority of Singapore. “We are honoured to share our experience in the drafting of these guidelines. We hope the Guidelines for City Mobility: Steering towards collaboration will be useful for cities looking to build an urban mobility ecosystem centred on its people, anchored by values of safety, sustainability and inclusivity.”
The Guidelines for City Mobility: Steering towards collaboration invites cities and mobility partners to confirm the guidelines that resonate for their context, adapt them as necessary and apply them consistently with all stakeholders by:
1. Creating opportunities to share information and insights for future mobility activities and projects
2. Working together to educate users on the impact of their mobility choices and encourage behavioural changes
3. Cooperating through dedicated contact people who will ensure that the basic mobility needs of all users are prioritized
4. Prioritizing collaboration and communication with users and local community stakeholders
“We are at a historical point in the process of urban and transport development globally. The introduction of new forms of mobility does not come without challenges, and sharing experiences across the board can be a powerful way of building knowledge, improving systems and ensuring ownership and sustainability.” Explained Harriet Tregoning, Director, NUMO, the New Urban Mobility alliance, USA.
“These guidelines capture a collaborative approach for cities and mobility partners to ensure the ultimate beneficiary is the user regardless of where in the world they are and that technology is a tool for better mobility, rather than the end goal.”
“The future of ride-hailing companies is inextricably linked with local governments and communities. Closer partnerships are in the interests of all concerned. These guidelines provide a framework for those partnerships.” Stated Daniel Sperling, Professor and Director, Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, USA.
“We are glad to have co-authored this paper which has, at its core, a collaborative approach towards mobility in all its forms and focuses on the need to create a human-scale city that places its residents at the heart of its public policies.” Shared Juan José Mendez, Secretary of Transportation and Public Works of the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
The guidelines also reflect the findings of the World Economic Forum’s recent report Digitizing and Transforming Mobility Systems: Lessons from the Detroit Region, which explore the potential of data-driven technologies to optimize the efficiency of mobility systems and support decision-makers via pilot efforts within Detroit, Michigan – in connection with the neighbouring cities of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario.
These guidelines suggest practices for collaborating across the private and public sectors and offer an approach, developed by the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Mobility, for accomplishing and implementing liveable and just transportation networks.
Notes to editors:
Learn about the Global Future Council on Mobility here.
Read the Forum Agenda at http://wef.ch/agenda
Become a fan of the Forum on Facebook at http://wef.ch/facebook
Watch Forum videos at http://wef.ch/video
Follow the Forum on Instagram at http://wef.ch/instagram
Follow the Forum on LinkedIn at http://wef.ch/linkedin
Learn about the Forum’s impact on http://wef.ch/impact
Subscribe to Forum news releases at http://wef.ch/news