UITP welcomes new ‘Digital Platforms’ players as members

The digital revolution taking place within the public transport sector has introduced a number of ‘Digital Platforms’ players to the landscape, changing the way people think about and use public transport, and now, the UITP is welcoming them as new members.

Door2Door, Citymapper, Uber, Moovel, Via, Grab, Ola, Yandex, 99 and Upstream, among others, will make up a new subsection of the UITP’s membership – called Digital Platforms – that reflects the association’s aim to lead the mobility transition. The subsection will house members who offer access to services or assets, such as trip planning tools or ride-sharing, via the internet.

These digital players each have a role to play in a solution for sustainable urban mobility, and will be able to work together with existing UITP members on topics such as digitalisation, sustainable development and combined mobility, among other things.

The digital solutions providers provide services that complement public transport to ensure passenger satisfaction. Public transport, particularly in densely utilised urban areas and during peak hours, is the only viable solution for cities. However, providing efficient public transport when demand is low has proven to be challenging, but this is where new mobility options can make an impact.

“Alone, these new players do not have the capacity or capability to meet every journey need or solve congestion issues. They therefore need to operate to
complement existing high quality public transport,” said UITP Secretary General, Alain Flausch.

An integrated combination of sustainable mobility services is key to cutting urban car dependency. Urban space is one of the most precious resources in a city and private cars are parked for 95 per cent of their lifetime, taking up space that could be reallocated to green areas, businesses, and housing, to name a few.

“The advent of the smartphone launched an unprecedented emergence of new players, whose influence is extending to all facets of the public transport market and digitalisation is promising to propel the industry further,” explained Flausch.

UITP’s new membership subsection category will therefore include online digital platforms that facilitate access to services or assets via connections that are service(s) and/or asset(s) via a B2B (business to business), B2C (business to customer) or P2P (peer to peer) connection. A service could be travel information, booking, ticketing or a ride with a driver, and an asset could be cars, parking space etc; typically, the services are only accessible via the internet.