For this month’s Women in Shared Mobility series, we had the honour of interviewing on the subjects of MaaS (mobility as a service) and Member Insights and Experiences. We spoke with Marie-Laure Barrau of Free2Move on MaaS and Stefanie Lemcke, CEO of GoKid, and Tanya Paz, self-employed as an industry consultant, on Member Insights and Experiences.
December Women in Shared Mobility Interviewees
Marie-Laure Barrau, Business Development at Free2Move
What is the biggest benefit of MaaS?
MaaS contributes to the shift in user adoption of new mobility services, doing so, it contributes to the expansion of the shared mobility Industry.
What is the biggest challenge for MaaS adoption and introduction?
The biggest challenge for MaaS introduction is regulation, especially the fact that regulation is specific to each country or region. The biggest challenge for MaaS adoption is dealing with intermodality in a very fragmented and global market.
How will MaaS change when AVs are introduced?
I am convinced that AVs will boost MaaS adoption. MaaS will become a keystone in shared AVs: for people to access and use them. We are preparing the future and we are contributing to a better Environment for the next generations!
Tanya Paz, Consultant in Shared Mobility
What is the biggest transportation challenge for an everyday citizen of your city when they move around town?
Not knowing all the modes available and not having access to all modes for most/all people. Also, for each trip, not knowing what the cost will be, the time it will take, nor the best route to take. With that information, a person could choose the best mode for each trip, every time – without being a transportation expert.
How could shared mobility, or Autonomous Vehicles in the near future, solve that problem?
First, focus on getting a seamless, integrated, multi-modal, transportation system that prioritizes wider sidewalks with curb ramps, more protected bicycle/skateboard lanes and intersections, and frequent transit. Then, add autonomous vehicles. if shared, electric, and e-hailed with a user-friendly app the system would be a vast improvement over what we have in most cities today.
Women are slightly under-represented as members of shared mobility programs; why do you think that is and how do we change that?
Perhaps women lead busy lives and need to be convinced mobility is economical, efficient, convenient, and/or safe in order for them to try it. We also teach girls and women that the world outside the home is unsafe when data shows us we are less safe in the home. Most women are much more likely to get beaten or raped by someone we know. We need to realize it is safer to be walking around looking for the carshare car or bikeshare bike. And the more women walking around outside, the safer our cities are for everyone.
Stefanie Lemcke, Founder and CEO at GoKid
What is the biggest transportation challenge for an everyday citizen of your city when they move around town?
We are in the family transportation space, and the amount of time that parents spend driving their kids around is simply not sustainable. 32 million kids are being driven to school everyday by their parents.Even in a city like New York with great public transportation, 300,000 kids are being driven to school every single day. In Stockholm, Sweden, over 400,000 car trips are taken per week just to get kids to their soccer programs. Traffic and congestion in cities are increasing and GoKid is helping to decrease this traffic by eliminating single occupied vehicles.
How could shared mobility, or Autonomous Vehicles in the near future, solve that problem?
We expect autonomous vehicles to arrive in certain preset routes first. For the transportation of children, we imagine that full autonomy is not necessarily desired, as kids need more supervision and monitoring. An autonomous vehicle is (not yet) able to tell kids to stop fighting over snacks in a car.
However, we can see our technology move into autonomous vehicles, school buses or vans. We basically connect parents to their children and the vehicles they are in. We provide dynamic route planning, GPS and live tracking, and notify parents when kids have been picked up and dropped off. All of these technologies are super useful in vehicles – in fact, we are moving into cars with an in-car integration, which will be announced during CES next year.
Women are slightly under-represented as members of shared mobility programs; why do you think that is and how do we change that?
The tech industry, similar to many other industries, is slowly realizing that women are representing the majority of the purchasing power in families. A woman running a tech company is so rare – even with the same exact pitch, a venture capitalist would choose a man over a woman.
Only 7% of women-led tech companies receive VC funding, even though studies show they are more successful. We need to change the composition of VCs and increase leadership training for women, so they can advance into C level roles. Regarding shared mobility, we can only stress again that transport for families is often in the hands of mothers – so they need to be involved in the future of our society.
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Stefanie Lemcke is a serial entrepreneur and an experienced digital manager who has worked in innovation and technology for the past 15 years. She is the founder of GoKid, which helps schools, teams, and families easily set up and manage carpools. Stefanie developed the technology with a small team and after GoKid got accepted into Techstars Mobility, headed GoKid as the CEO. Stefanie holds a PhD in law from the University of Munich and an M.B.A. Connect with Stefanie on Twitter.
That’s it for this month. We’ll be back at you next month with a brand new series on Women in Shared Mobility, ranging in topic from Maas, to Member Insights and Experiences to Autonomous Vehicles.
Interested in participating in our Women in Shared Mobility series? Please get in touch with us here.
