The Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities has been signed by 15 companies

Fifteen of the world’s leading transport and technology companies signed the Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities, pledging to prioritise people over vehicles, lower emissions, promote equity and encourage data sharing.

The 15 companies that have signed the principles have a strong influence on how people live and travel across cities around the world. Together, each day, they account for 77 million passenger trips and inform the travel decisions of 10 million people.

New modes of transport and technologies are already disrupting the systems and changing the way people move, with cities at the risk of becoming over-crowded, congested and polluted, the right innovations need to be implemented to ensure cities can remain sustainable.

The Shared Mobility Principles provide a clear vision for the future of cities and align the city governments, private companies and NGOs to work together to make them more livable. The principles were developed by Robin Chase, Zipcar co-Founder and a consortium of leading city and transport organisations.

“For most cities, urban planners, legislators and residents, there is a cacophony of advice,” said Chase. “Our goal is to align cities, the private sector and civil society around a shared vision to ensure we harness the good and avoid the bad of new business models and technologies. These companies represent some of the biggest players and we are thrilled to see we share common goals.”

The companies that recently signed the principles include: BlaBlaCar, Citymapper, Didi, Keolis, LimeBike, Lyft, Mobike, Motivate, Ofo, Ola, Scoot Networks, Transit, Uber, Via and Zipcar.

“Keolis has a solid foundation for the mobility of the future, which we see as being connected, autonomous, shared and electric. These elements are key to addressing the world’s rapid urbanisation, as we all strive to make life in cities more pleasant and liveable,” said Bernard Tabary, CEO International at Keolis. “Keolis is a proud signatory and partner for this charter.”

“Didi is committed to working with communities and partners to solve the world’s transportation, environmental and employment challenges using big data-driven deep-learning algorithms that optimise resource allocation,” said Wensong Zhang, Senior Vice President and Chief Scientist at Didi Chuxing. “By continuously improving the user experience and creating social value, we strive to build an open, efficient, collaborative and sustainable transportation ecosystem.”

“At Lyft, we believe our cities should be built around people not cars. That’s why we’ve committed to the Shared Mobility Principles for Livable Cities and are excited to join them in supporting policies that encourage shared rides, fair use fees and truly multi-modal communities. Working together we can have a real impact on congestion, making our cities easier to get around and more enjoyable to live in,” said Joseph Okpaku, Vice President of Public Policy, Lyft.