Why mobility is on the move

Posted on 23 April, 2019

Next time you’re stuck in traffic, ponder this: the average city dweller in the early twentieth century had more transport choice than we do today.

There were light rail and locomotives, horse-drawn carriages and cable cars, bicycles and old-fashioned pedestrian power. And, in what is surely a stunning surprise, electric powered cars were well established in cities by the turn of the twentieth century. New York City even had a fleet of 60 electric taxis.

By the 1940s, Henry Ford’s mass-produced, petrol-powered vehicles had launched the car culture. While travel by train was still popular for longer distances, the private car became an object to covet.

But what was once a symbol of freedom has now become an obstacle to reliable, regular transport. The cost to our wallets, waistlines, time, health and the environment are challenging us to rethink our love affair with the car.

A few weeks back I was fortunate to host Dr Tim Williams, Australasia Cities Leader for Arup, at Salon Canberra, an event series I’ve been curating to spark ideas and innovation around the Capital.

L-R Emma Macdonald, Dr Tim Williams, Travis Doherty at Salon Canberra. Credit: Rohan Thomson.

The timing, in the lead-up to the launch of Canberra’s light rail, couldn’t have been better.

Tim is one Australia’s most influential urbanists and, having spent years working on East London transport projects before he landed in Australia, Tim has deep insights to share on the future of mobility.

Mobility is certainly on the move. Uber changed our thinking about technology and transport, and now the options for getting from A to B seem endless. Dockless e-bikes, segways and scooters, car sharing subscriptions, drone deliveries, on-demand bus services, and ride-hailing apps have eroded the need for car ownership. And it’s happened almost in the blink of an eye.

Helskini’s Whim app, for example, allows commuters to plan and pay for trips across multiple transport modes – public transport, bikeshare, taxis and carshare – on one simple platform.

Lime, which started with sharing services for scooters, pedal bikes and e-bikes, is now working on a new type of enclosed electric “transit pod”.

And Uber spent nearly half a billion US dollars on research and development of AVs flying cars and other futuristic tech last year alone. Uber Elevate expects to launch its first flying cars in Dubai and Dallas as early as next year.

Does this sound like science fiction? Tim is sceptical about some mobility options.

“Nobody’s going to buy a car they don’t drive themselves,” he said. Instead, the future of AVs will more likely be found in buses which have a much lighter impact on a city.

While nearly 87 per cent of Australians still choose to commute by car we sit at a mobility crossroads driven by a “massive surge” in urban congestion.

“Everyone from ride-hailing cars to delivery trucks to bikes and scooters wants a piece of the curb. How do smart cities map and manage this precious resource?” he asked.

L-R Llewella Jago, Stephanie Waddon at Salon Canberra. Credit: Rohan Thomson.

Amazon’s brains trust is working on solutions because they recognise “we aren’t going to build more streets and we can’t put more cars on the roads. And if Amazon is saying this, I tend to take it very seriously”.

The future may be in flying cars, but Tim remains a champion of two tried-and-true transport options: rail and feet.

Tim showed us a graph which plotted the correlation between public transport and jobs density, which he said was evidence enough to “persuade the UK Parliament to back Crossrail”, Europe’s largest transport project.

“Productive cities are supported by mass transit, because the alternative is congestion – something we’ve discovered in Australia.”

Tim also pointed to the statistics that show walkable neighbourhoods are healthier. Obesity rates rise as Sydney’s suburbs sprawl outwards for example, and researchers directly correlate lower levels of physical activity with low-access to public transport.

There’s also economic inequality in the transport equation. A low paying job generally means living further out from a city’s centre, which hurts the hip pocket in higher transport costs.

L-R Phillip Leeson, Shane Rattenbury at Salon Canberra. Credit: Rohan Thomson.

And, when transport generates 18 per cent of Australia’s emissions each year, there’s an environmental price to be paid.

Ultimately, getting mobility right could be a significant competitive advantage for cities. As Tim says, Australia’s cities are our wealth-generation centres.

“One per cent of Australian land creates 80 percent of Australian wealth. In America it’s three per cent. We’re a more concentrated urban wealth creating society than America – so we better start making cities our core business”.