Researchers contend that more people will move into cities in the coming years, raising the question of how our transportation systems will manage the rising populations. Approximately 70 percent of the world's population will live in a city by 2050, and "the majority of urban mobility systems simply can’t cope," according to Wilhelm Lerner, Partner for Strategy and Organization at Arthur D. Little (ADL).
"Our research and analysis shows that there are a wide range of available solutions and technologies to meet today’s mobility challenges, but most urban mobility systems have proved hostile to innovation,” Lerner says.
To meet the urban mobility challenge, ADL argues that cities must implement one of three strategies dependent on their location and maturity:
- Network the system. High-performing cities must provide a single point of access for the travel value chain to promote multimodal transportation.
- Rethink the system. Cities in mature countries with a high proportion of motorized individual transport need to fundamentally redesign their mobility systems to become more public and sustainability-orientated.
- Establish sustainable core. Cities in emerging countries must establish a sustainable mobility core that can satisfy short-term demand at a reasonable cost without requiring major redesign later.