Collaborative UITP study looks to mobility post-COVID-19

Global management consultancy Arthur D. Little has released the fourth edition of its Future of Mobility study in collaboration with the International Association for Public Transport (UITP). “The Future of Mobility Post-COVID-19 – Turning the crisis into an opportunity to accelerate towards more sustainable, resilient and human-centric urban mobility systems” engaged with over 70 executives from more than 30 organisations worldwide to shed light on the impact COVID-19 will have on mobility patterns in the medium- to long term.

It also aimed to provide strategic responses to enable mobility policy makers and solutions providers to leverage the disruption caused by the crisis and make step changes in the post-COVID-19 world.

“Changing the basic paradigm of mobility systems is hugely challenging, and up to now, most cities and countries have struggled to make the fundamental changes needed to move towards sustainable, resilient and human-centric urban mobility systems,” said FrançoisJoseph Van Audenhove, Partner at Arthur D. Little and Head of the Future of Mobility Lab. “Despite, or even because of, the economic stress that we will see over the coming years, now could be the time for stakeholders to act together to make it happen.”

The report provided a summary of more than 100 actions that transport authorities and mobility solutions providers are taking, or planning to take, in response to the crisis. It also identified six “game changers that are critical for mobility system players to make the most of what is a unique window of opportunity to move forward and accelerate change”.

“Together, we must move beyond the management of short-term response and seize a historical and unique opportunity to start over and shape the future of our cities,” said Jérôme Pourbaix, Senior Director of Global Growth at UITP. “We don’t want to go from lockdown back to gridlock, therefore this is our chance to work together and bring back better mobility to people in our cities.”

The full study can be read here.