Delivering seamless urban mobility for all
The mobility industry is experiencing a significant transformation driven by digitalisation and the rise of the sharing economy, while users aspire to have multiple affordable means of transport to move seamlessly. Addressing urban mobility represents one of the most important challenges in regional and metropolitan areas and also holds the greatest potential for substantial impact.
We define the future of Urban Mobility as a multimodal, user-centric approach that is equitable, safe, clean and sustainable. This is founded on two key pillars: moving away from private cars to more sustainable modes and services; orchestrating transport networks and mobility for the efficient and seamless door-to-door mobility of passengers and freight.
ERTICO is actively supporting the widespread deployment of the next generation of cooperative, balanced, seamless and personalised mobility services in regions and cities of all sizes. We continue to move from concepts and strategy to delivery: operationalising new approaches. Our Urban Mobility roadmap targets savings of one million hours of travel time, one million tonnes of CO2 and 10,000 lives by 2030.
Sustainability and reducing emissions, including Net Zero activities, remain central. We are part of CIVITAS, the flagship EU programme for sustainable urban mobility, and new partners in its New Mobility Services (NMS) community, playing an active role in urban mobility design. The SUM (Seamless Shared Urban Mobility) project seeks to revolutionise mobility in more than 15 European cities by 2026, increasing to 30 by 2030, and integrating new and shared mobility systems with public transport. As well as greener mobility, SUM innovations cover intermodality, interconnectivity, safety, resilience and replicability. Living Lab deployments are taking place in nine cities, which will receive training through the ERTICO Academy on knowledge sharing and peer-to-peer capacity building.
Our work also focuses on greater equity in Urban Mobility: more inclusive, equitable and accessible mobility for all, with the same access, rights, and opportunities. Involving the public helps to ensure the delivery of user-centric solutions, with the SINFONICA project as an example.
Other key trends of our work reflect the rise of New Mobility Services (NMS) towards an integrated multimodal future. These services are being enabled by co-creating solutions that directly involve the public and using mechanisms of our Partnership that include Innovation Platforms such as TM2.0 for interactive traffic management. We combine user-centric thinking with innovative technologies, aligned with policymaking including the EU Urban Mobility Framework. We also play an important role in the European Commission’s Expert Group on Urban Mobility (EGUM), including co-leadership of the working group on the future of mobility and use of space.
We are working on delivering new efficiencies, including integrating goods and freight into passenger transport systems and shared spaces. We apply technology and connectivity to enable mobility data spaces and provide greater flexibility by dynamically allocating road space, and we continue to explore opportunities in Urban Air Mobility (UAM).
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is another aspect of delivering efficient and integrated multimodal mobility focused on user needs. We continue to contribute to the public-private MaaS Alliance with active participation by ERTICO’s CEO as Vice President, and involvement in the working groups on Business Models and Governance, User Needs and Acceptance, and Technology and Standards.
Efforts to bring together the MaaS market include exploring the potential of emerging services including mobility credits or mobility wallets. This work includes providing expert advice and review for a new national MaaS app for Turkey.
SOLUTIONSplus is another example of our work in multiple demonstration actions that continue to push forward the integration of cleaner urban e-mobility in local, national and global policy. Developments include eBikes in Kigali and Dar es Salaam, eScooters in Hamburg, eCargoBikes in Quito and Montevideo, eTukTuks in Dar es Salaam, eMopeds in Hanoi, and e3Wheelers in Kathmandu.
Replicability is increasingly important, and we play an important role in the cross-fertilisation of solutions and approaches across the urban mobility ecosystem, including research, testing and piloting, adapting to the needs of local people, economic conditions, and cultural contexts. With the EU’s Mission to create at least 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities by 2030, these cities will be experimentation and innovation hubs to help all European cities follow suit by 2050. One of the leading partnership projects in this sphere is REALLOCATE, aiming at transforming streets into inclusive, green, safe and future-proof urban spaces where communities live and thrive.
The new four-year, €25 million metaCCAZE project, coordinated by ERTICO, will also help cities accelerate their transition to greener urban mobility. It embeds European strategies such as the EU Green Deal, Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission, and 2ZERO and CCAM partnerships into concrete innovation actions, with pioneering technologies and approaches for passenger and freight services, and related infrastructure. Successful approaches from the four Trailblazer Cities of Amsterdam, Munich, Limassol and Tampere will be transferred to six follower cities of Athens, Kraków, Gozo, Milan, Miskolc, and Paris (Ile-de-France) region.
Together with our Partners, ERTICO continues to work at the confluence of mobility and transport, shaping and delivering solutions for the future of urban environments. We understand that mobility, the act of moving, requires genuine user-centricity to be successful for all. And that transport, how we get from A to B, also requires equity: in networks and infrastructure, innovation, and in the services provided, again focused on users and extending across public transport, operators, government, freight and logistics, and technology.
We continue to interview cities for the ERTICO City Moonshot initiative, with more than 220 cities taking part globally (the final total will be 300). This expanding knowledge database helps to connect policy with real-life application, sharing knowledge and ideas.