Summary: How Cities can Transition to Shared Mobility with Inclusive Transport Services

Shared mobility is growing stronger and stronger with each passing year, and all have seemingly accepted this form of transportation, from the consumer to some of the biggest car manufacturers. But what about the cities?

We recently reviewed a report citing a new study released by the International Transport Forum, which takes a look at how cities – perhaps the most important player in the ultimate and long-term success of the industry – can manage the challenges of geographical scale and transition to shared mobility services.

Report: How Cities Can Transition to Shared Mobility

Expanding on two earlier studies which examined the impacts of replacing private vehicles in a given city with shared cars, this time the ITS looked at how cities can address the question of implementation and expansion to wider metropolitan cities, based on mobility data for the city of Lisbon, Portugal. This new study offers different shared mobility solutions using advanced computer models.

The report assesses issues around the scaling up of shared mobility services to the whole of the metropolitan area, and explores how shared mobility can improve accessibility for users with impairments. It also looks at the impacts of these services on the use of existing high-capacity public transport and on access to jobs across the whole study area.

Study Findings: Why Transitioning Cities are Needed

So what were the results? This latest study, which is perhaps the most critical at this time of high growth, found that, for one, the reduction of traffic volumes from personal vehicles, a lessening of emissions from such, and a lowering of prices involved in car ownership are the immediate results of a full-scale implementation of shared mobility in this metropolitan area.

For example, total vehicle kilometres in peak hours are reduced by 55 per cent (compared to 2011) for the metropolitan area, while the reduction for the city alone was 44 per cent. CO2 emissions are reduced by 62 per cent for the wider agglomeration and 53 per cent for the city.

According to the report, this seems largely associated with the possibility of using demand-responsive services based on shared taxis and taxi-buses to link with the various lines of electrified suburban rail present in the Lisbon region, a perfect example of an integrated mobility system.

Shared mobility also makes access to jobs and other public services easier and more equitable and releases massive amounts of parking space: a full 95% of parking spaces could be reallocated for other public uses.

So how do cities transition to shared mobility? The report recommends that shared mobility should be phased in slowly, to help educate the people and lead to public acceptance of the new model.

Other suggestions include beginning the integration of shared mobility solutions into existing urban transport plans and leveraging shared mobility to increase use of existing high-capacity public transport.

The report also suggests optimizing overall efficiency while assuring a healthy level of competition in the market and limiting exclusive occupancy of shared vehicles to avoid the erosion of traffic reduction and CO2 emissions benefits, amongst others.