Smart Cities: Mobility ecosystems for a more sustainable future

In emerging cities such as Lagos (Nigeria) and Bogotá, for example, the absence of an affordable and reliable public transportation system has forced residents to rely on automobiles and other motorized forms of public transit such as motorbikes and minibuses. Given the average one-way commute time of almost an hour, these cities are among the most congested in the world. The levels of fine particulate matter of 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM 2.5) in Bogotá and Lagos are three and 14 times the recommended World Health Organization (WHO) limit, respectively.

Yet even some cities with robust public transit systems remain fraught with congestion. In London and Paris, the average one-way commute takes longer than 40 minutes, with freight vehicles accounting for one-third of the traffic in Central London during morning peak hours. In both cities, parking remains a problem: Paris, for instance, can accommodate parking for only 1 million vehicles, yet more than 1.5 million vehicles enter the Paris central business district every day. This results in illegal parking on the city’s narrow streets, increasing congestion (see figure below).

Some other key findings of our study:

• Residents of the sample cities spent an average of 111 hours idling in traffic annually. Assuming a 45-hour workweek with 48 working weeks in a year, that equals up to 5% of one’s total working hours spent stuck in traffic. In Istanbul, for example, people spend almost 200 hours in traffic annually. Those in Amsterdam and Chicago fared relatively better, at 64 hours.
• In all 28 cities we studied, the average annual PM 2.5 concentration exceeded the WHO’s air quality guideline for particulate matter, 5 micrograms per cubic meter. That is an alarming statistic for environmental sustainability and the health and safety of citizens. In Beijing and Mumbai (India), two fast-growing cities, those levels are 16 and 13 times the safe WHO limit, respectively.
• On average, residents spend almost 4% of their net monthly income on public transportation passes. In São Paulo and Lagos, commuters have to spend, on average, 11% of their net monthly income on such passes.
• In ten of the 28 cities, the average number of traffic-related fatalities each year exceeded the global 15-year average of 18 deaths/100,000 population, with cities such as Johannesburg (25.9 deaths/100,000 population) and Bangkok (33 deaths/100,000 population) having very high incidences of such fatalities.

Three different cities we studied illustrate the power of this multilayered ecosystem approach.

Singapore: Singapore’s officials have said they want it to be a “45-minute city”—meaning that people can travel from their home to their place of work in less than 45 minutes. The government has built infrastructure for bus rapid transit (BRT), light-rail transit (LRT), and mass rapid transit (MRT). (Because sustainability is a key goal, municipal leaders have committed to having a 100% clean energy public bus and taxi fleet by 2040.) Singapore also has collaborated with French transportation company Bolloré to develop an electric car–sharing program, called BlueSG.

Meanwhile, the Singapore Economic Development Board, through various public–private partnerships, is working to create an innovation pipeline to take advantage of new mobility offerings such as on-demand autonomous shuttles—in collaboration with Alliances for Action (AfA), an industry-led coalition—and air taxis, in collaboration with Volocopter. Already a technology leader among cities, Singapore has been using advanced tech, including smart sensors, connectivity, and cloud computing, to enable a centralized bus fleet management system, which has improved service efficiency.

What the city is doing well: To achieve its vision of becoming a 45-minute city, Singapore is focusing on building its infrastructure (e.g., it is building intermodal mobility hubs to allow commuters to move seamlessly from one mode of transportation to another). The city is developing a robust innovation ecosystem, collaborating with many private-sector players. Singapore has proactively shaped both the demand side (e.g., congestion fines, vehicle quotas) and the supply side (e.g., nonmotorized transportation policy), and has provided guidance for forward-looking technologies (e.g., technical references for autonomous vehicles).

Istanbul: The city is focused on providing citizens with multiple ways to travel efficiently (MRT, LRT, and BRT), while expanding roads, highways, and bridges. It is experimenting with technologies such as an electronic tolling system, and is even looking into the possibility of developing flying cars. By adopting an ecosystem approach, the city has made inroads into tackling its mobility challenges.

What the city is doing well: Istanbul is focusing on its modes of mobility/B2C offerings and mobility assets to provide multiple options to its citizens (e.g., MRT, LRT, and BRT). To tackle its unique traffic challenge—the Bosphorus Strait separates the city’s Asian and European sides—Istanbul is building underground road tunnels as well as an underground metro line to mitigate congestion on bridges (the infrastructure layer). It has used the financing and insurance layer to finance capital-intensive infrastructure projects through public–private partnerships.

Brisbane, Australia: On average, Brisbane residents travel farther for work than they do for any other purpose—in fact, double the distance. To alleviate this burden on commuters, the city is developing a new public bus network of more than 1,200 vehicles and 6,200 stops. Queensland is currently trialing hydrogen fuel cell buses, which local authorities want to become as ubiquitous as mobile phones. Through an investment of AU$5.4 billion (US$3.8 billion), the Queensland Government is working on a new high-speed, high-frequency rail link, the Cross River Rail. The in-progress metro project and a provision for water taxis, coupled with the existing shared mobility and micromobility modes—such as electric bikes and scooters—aim at making the city highly accessible and connected.

Brisbane places great importance on improving technology and developing infrastructure. The Brisbane Metropolitan Transport Management Centre, operated in partnership with the Queensland Government, provides real-time monitoring and operation of the city’s road and busway networks. Smart parking and smart traffic lights, along with an integrated payment system, is helping it move ahead on the path of smart mobility. To support these smart mobility initiatives, the Brisbane city council aims at harnessing innovation by bringing together government, industry, research partners, and the private sector to share ideas, technologies, and data.

What the city is doing well: Brisbane is prioritizing its mobility infrastructure via an extensive network of high-frequency buses along major routes that connect the city with the outer suburbs. Brisbane is also focused on enhancing the modes of mobility/B2C offerings and the mobility assets, developing multiple modes of public transit such as rail, metro, and water ferries to make the city accessible and connected. Finally, Brisbane is employing data and technology enablement (e.g., one payment method that can be used across all public transit modes).