Data sharing, climate change and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) are the key topics that the ERTICO City Moonshot initiative is investigating. With the ambition of engaging with 300 cities and regions worldwide, ERTICO is looking to understand their needs and requirements when it comes to transport and mobility.
Since May 2020, when the initiative was first launched, ERTICO has now interviewed more than 100 cities around the world with an insightful survey on three topics: data sharing, Mobility as a Service, and policy priorities on sustainability and the role of transport. We can pause and observe some early trends across these cities and regions globally.
Thus far, the first 100 interviews have shown that 92% of the cities are taking measures to address the current climate emergency. More than 60% of city authorities have taken actions related to transport to address the climate emergency such as the addition of specific bicycle lanes (92%), continuation of investment in public transport (75%), establishment of charging infrastructure for e-vehicles (69%) or the development of a transport action plan (68%). Furthermore actions, added in the ‘Other’ category by several cities to address climate change, are for example an introduction of low emission zones; electrification of fleet (buses and bikes) or free parking for e-vehicles. These actions reflect the common ambition to address the current climate crisis. As more and more actions are put in place, we can only hope for these tendencies to become more popular over time.
‘Initiatives like Moonshot that promote the sharing of great ideas will provide the basis for creative collaboration that is essential if we are to bring about the seismic shift in travel behaviour that is essential in the pursuit of zero Carbon.’ Coventry
When asked about the benefits of sharing transport data to help reach local objectives and overcome challenges, a large majority (97 out of 100!) of cities agreed that data sharing has become a key element in the development of mobility plans. As such, cities reveal that the typical types of transport data collected are the number of vehicles travelling on certain roads; the average speed on the road; the number of passengers on public transport; or additional traffic management data. This data collection aims at improving mobility and security in cities.
‘We are very interested to see the results of the City Moonshot initiative as it will provide the City with a good benchmark in terms of the application of new and emerging mobility technology and global best practice. This, in turn, will help us to refine and adapt our approaches to our own strategic mobility initiatives in line with current and emerging trends.’ – City of Cape Town
The early outcome reveals that most of the interviewed cities have a precondition for MaaS and have, or are working on the integration of a related policy. It is also revealed that city administrations believe they should be the main drivers behind MaaS, with 72 interviewed experts expressing that the approach to MaaS should be a mix between the public and the private sector. These results were highlighted during the joint webinar organised in collaboration with the MaaS Alliance. With the participation of 36 cities at the webinar, the topic of MaaS was discussed, with insight from three cities: Tampere, Buenos Aires and Hamburg.
The success of the City Moonshot initiative is closely linked to the needs of cities to learn from each other, but also to share their thoughts and priorities with industry and academia. Cities of Sao Paolo, Cape Town and Coventry shared their thoughts as reflections related to the ERTICO City Moonshot.
‘SPTrans is attentive to the world scenario and the tools that contribute to improving the user experience in public transport. MaaS is an important solution in this sense. We value knowledge and partnerships to achieve our mobility goals, which is why we are currently working with the World Bank to structure a new Unified Mobility Center in São Paulo’ – SPTrans, City of São Paulo and one of the interviewed cities.
Throughout 2020 and in 2021, cities are at the heart of the mobility revolution, having shown their forward-thinking ambitions in adapting themselves to challenging times, like the current pandemic that as a society we face. Having met the first milestone, as next steps ERTICO is looking to interview a further 200 cities worldwide. The results of the findings are going to be presented at the ITS World Congress on 11-15 October 2021, in Hamburg.
The list of interviewed cities is available Here
