Nov 08, 2016
When we ran the first fully integrated Mobility-as-a-Service pilot three years ago, it wasn’t called MaaS yet. Nevertheless, 70 households paid UbiGo to take care of their everyday travel. They were so happy with the service that they wanted it to continue and, yes, their personal car use significantly decreased as a result. But could…
Nov 03, 2016
The year 2012 was a torrid time for public transport in Singapore: train breakdowns, overcrowded buses and bus driver strikes were all rather new for the commuters of the young, modern city-state. I had a front row seat as the head of a team at the Land Transport Authority of Singapore responsible for public transport…
Nov 03, 2016
Smart, Shared, Sustainable Mobility as a Service The technology available today, as well as the scale of the problems facing the planet, means that it has never been more possible or more essential for us to make a difference and change the world. Where better for the solutions to the world’s problems to come from…
Nov 03, 2016
Where is mobility headed next? To find out, we hosted a Tweet Chat on November 2, 2016 and were joined by transport stakeholders from across the globe. Over the course of one hour, we unpacked the transport transformation happening in our cities focusing on sustainability, innovation, affordability and accessibility. Cities on the Move: Tweet Chat…
Nov 01, 2016
Public Transport has continued to adjust and adapt to social and technological changes since the advent of the omnibus more than two centuries ago. It was said that stagecoaches, at the time an innovative mode of transportation that could be used by both the upper class as well as the ordinary citizen, started to run…
Oct 31, 2016
From autonomous vehicles to mobility as a service, there has been an explosion in new technologies that will redefine how we move through cities. In the mix of these more digital innovations sits the more mechanical technology of urban cable. Urban cable is the modernization of the gondola. Not the canal faring boats of Venice,…
Oct 26, 2016
Urgent action is needed for securing a sustainable urban future around the globe. That was the driver for Habitat III – the major conference on the future of cities – held in Quito, Ecuador last week. The atmosphere, however, was not one of panic or deluge. Rather, participants shared a sense of clarity – and…
Oct 14, 2016
The creation of new master-planned cities is not a new development strategy – from Alexandria, to Brasilia, to Tianjin Eco-City, they have been prioritized by ambitious groups throughout history. New cities are proving grounds for experimenting with new technologies, planning approaches and economic strategies, and represent the desire to design new ways of living. A…
Oct 12, 2016
An address is something we take for granted. Yet, more than half of the world’s city dwellers lack a reliable addressing system. No house numbers or street names. No access to civic services. For those who have an address, it is hard to imagine how much is out of reach for those who do not.…
Sep 10, 2016
This post is part of our Age of Urban Tech discussion series, following the fifth edition of the New Cities Summit in Montréal in June 2016. The opening conversation at the New Cities Summit, The Age of Urban Tech, assembled voices from the public and private sectors to discuss the vast potential of Urban Tech…
Sep 08, 2016
The ecology of water, its flora, fauna and microbes, past and present; water and geology, how they are related to the shape of the land; the history of humans and these waters; the development of the city, industrialization; infrastructure and the control, delivery and removal of water; neighborhoods and their local relationship to water; the…
Sep 07, 2016
The German Energiewende (the transition to a low carbon sustainable energy system) is under pressure. The transition surged in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to innovative and far-reaching policies to support renewable energies, improved efficiency, and reduced consumption, resulting in the transformation of a large industrialized economy. Yet, once again, energy politics are…
