Mobility Innovators Podcast

The role of the public transit sector will evolve in the future as people are looking for better customer experience and real-time updates. The pandemic has negative impact on the public transit sector across the globe. However, the North American region is still lagging behind in the recovery. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $108 billion to support public transportation programs, includin...

Autonomous mobility will play a major role in reshaping cities. Industry predicted that autonomous vehicles would be providing services and were available on our streets by 2021. However, the industry is still not closer to market deployment. Autonomous vehicles are already in the phase of disillusionment under Gartner Hype Cycle for connected and smart mobility. The industry will see upper moveme...

The mobility sector is undergoing a major transformation. The automotive industry is investing more in digital transformation, electric vehicles, and autonomy. There are many attempts done in the past too. However, these changes will really happen, and we will see that scaling which we are talking about is it's mostly that we think three things are coming together - Technology, Consumer Needs, and...

Africa is the second most populous continent in the world with 1.4 billion population and will reach 1.6 billion inhabitants by 2030. It is more than 16% of the world’s population. The startup ecosystem is evolving in Africa and venture capital firms are investing in the region, but it is only 2% of the total VC investment globally. Technology will play an important role in shaping the African eco...

Generally, the rail industry has a reputation for being slow to adopt new technologies. However, in reality, rail technologies are evolving a lot in the last few years. The key difference is that the adoption, the adoption is just slow, but the technology is evolving. Public transit companies around the world are implementing new technologies to make passengers’ journeys more comfortable. Metro an...

Public transit agencies are trying to bring back lost ridership by launching various marketing campaigns and loyalty programs. The potential to combine games and rewards with public transport travel is significant. It could provide additional behavior change rewards for off-peak travel, encourage walking instead of vehicle access to public transport, or reward the use of alternative public transpo...

The pandemic had a significant impact on public transportation ridership in North America. Currently, the ridership is ranging between 50-70% depending on the city and transit mode. Before the pandemic, ridership on Ottawa's transit system was among the highest per capita of any North American city, with 475,000 daily journeys in the city of 1 million habitants. OC Transpo (aka Ottawa-Carleton Reg...

Innovation will play a key role in the transformation of the public transport network. Cities around the world are seeking out innovative solutions to reduce emissions and adapt to changing travel behaviours. The RATP Group is the world's third largest public transport company, carrying 16 million people every day in 14 countries through 107 subsidiaries around the world. RATP is implementing vari...

The Middle East is generally known as a car-dependent region owing to its harsh climate and cheap energy cost. However, things have changed dramatically in the last decade as cities have put digitalization and improvement of public transport on their agendas. There is a competitive spirit among countries in the Middle East region as countries are investing heavily in public transport infrastructur...

Public transport is the backbone of the cities. However, there is a need to shift focus on customer experience owing to the emergence of multiple mobility options. Using AI and machine learning through leveraging a variety of data sources, public transport operators can understand the real historical and current passenger demand of urban transportation systems. The city authorities should try to a...

Venture capitalists are pouring money into the mobility sector. In 2021, mobility startups have raised $97.7 billion. It is important to note that venture capital firms are investing in a variety of mobility technologies such as autonomous vehicles, on-demand, e-scooters, electric vehicles, battery technologies, cybersecurity, data management, fleet subscription, urban logistics, urban air mobilit...

Public Transport is going through a transformation phase. There is increasing competition from other modes of transport. On the other hand, the ridership has not fully recovered. Public transport operators should provide safe and reliable. The role of transport is much more than just moving people from A to B. There is a need to adopt innovation culture and cooperation and co-innovation with exter...

Angel investment is important to the achievement of startups. Angel investors are early backers who not only provide funding to small startups or entrepreneurs, but also support product development and discovering early customers. As the private funding market is facing slow down, it will be important for the entrepreneurs to build their ventures strategically. Startups in mobility spaces are no e...

Digital technologies are currently remodeling the public transport ecosystem. Blockchain is emerging as new technology to facilitate seamless urban mobility through delivering future-oriented Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions. Other new emerging technologies like Web3 and Metaverse have the potential to offer door-to-door journey experiences to users. Iomob is building the Internet of Mobilit...

Innovation is playing an important role in improving the customer experience for public transportation users. Transit agencies should create a strong innovation culture within their organization to define what innovation means to them, generate new ideas by involving front-line staff, learn best practices from other agencies, and conduct pilots to test new ideas. On-demand buses, Mobility as a Ser...

Technology will be crucial in improving public transportation networks in emerging markets. Deep tech can assist in rationalizing a large volume of data in order to build inference. However, many emerging markets lack data because it is fragmented and non-standardized. The public transit agencies in emerging markets should follow open data and open-source principles. This will help the entrepreneu...

Public Transport is the backbone of cities and provides access to people for both economic and leisure activities. It plays a more essential role in emerging markets. According to the UN and other sources, around 3 billion people rely on Public Transport in the emerging markets. The people in emerging markets are reliant on public transport mainly for commuting to and from work. These markets are...

The city of Madrid is committed to achieving climate neutrality by 2050 and has launched A new sustainable strategy for Madrid: Madrid 360 in September 2019. Sustainable Mobility is a key component of the strategy, focusing on the creation of low-emission zones, the construction of infrastructure, the promotion of public transportation, electromobility, and personal mobility. EMT Madrid is in char...

Public transport sector is undergoing major transformation owing to the availability of various mobility options in the cities, as well as, changing riders' behavior. Public transit operators need to adapt to these new technology and market trends. The riders are looking for more personalized information in real-time, including any change or disruption of service. Further, there is an expectation...

Digital technologies are currently remodeling the public transit ecosystem. Blockchain technologies are changing the world and becoming more mainstream. The opportunity of an increasing number of decentralized applications running in peer-to-peer networks needs to be understood by the various stakeholders involved in the process. Being a new technology, it is difficult to find dedicated use cases...

Transit agencies around the world are faced with the challenge of digitizing their operations in a short period of time due to pandemics. The challenge is further complicated for the small and medium-sized transit agencies as they lack the expertise and resources. RTC (Reseau de Transport de la Capitale) made it through and became a champion of digital transformation, launching many technical inno...

Technology and New mobility are reshaping urban transportation in cities. However, transit agencies should focus on solving real customer problems rather than introducing new innovations such as autonomous mobility, mobility as a service, ride- sharing, electric scooters, etc., Human-centric design is key to the quality of life in cities, putting people at the heart of urban transport planning. Th...

Cities around the world are investing in electric buses and planning to induct electric buses to achieve their climate goals. The city of Shenzhen, a 20-million-strong metropolis, is known as the global capital of electric buses. The first 100 electric buses were introduced in 2010, and the entire fleet was converted to electric in 2017, totaling 16,000 electric buses and 22,000 electric taxis. Th...

Guest : Mohamed Mezghani, Secretary General, International Association of Public Transport (UITP) The International Association of Public Transport (UITP) was founded in 1885 as the European tram operators' association. Fast forward today, UITP has more than 1,800 members in 100 countries around the world. New mobility and digitalization will play an important role in the recovery plan of transit...

Digitalization and innovation have been behind many of the exciting changes to the ways in which we live and move. Mobility, including passenger transport, personal vehicles, supply chain, delivery, and logistics, all are undergoing a huge transformation. Digitalization brings a host of opportunities for the mobility sector, including opportunities to increase efficiency and enhance quality, lower...