Cities need to prepare for transit’s future, experts say
European transit trends suggest one seamless service is coming, whether municipalities are ready or not
Imagine a future in which you start your journey to work by typing your destination into a smartphone app. By the time you walk out your door, the app has located the nearest available car2go vehicle, which you use to drive to the local rail station.
As you wait on the platform, the app tells you when the next train will arrive to take you downtown. From there the app directs you to the closest bike share dock, where you pick up a bicycle and ride the last kilometre of your commute to the office.
You never have to swipe a fare card or fumble in your pocket for a token. Instead, the app bills the cost of all your travel to your credit card at the end of the month.
The experience is not yet a reality for transit users almost anywhere on Earth, but according to some European experts, this type of highly integrated, digitized on-demand system, which has been dubbed “mobility-as-a-service” or MAAS, could be the future of transportation. And cities need to prepare for it or risk a radical destabilization of their transit systems.
Karen Vancluysen is the secretary general of Polis, a network of European cities and regional governments that works on sustainable transportation policy.
In an interview while in town for the Toronto Region Board of Trade’s Nov. 21 Transportation Summit, she said MAAS is the hottest topic in European transit circles right now.
“Basically, you try to integrate all existing transport services into one package that you offer to the customer, in a seamless way, with integrated payment and ticketing,” Vancluysen said.
She said future MAAS platforms could combine public transit, ridesharing, taxis, bike sharing and car rental services so that, from the customer’s perspective, “it doesn’t really matter anymore who are the different suppliers in the background.”
A policy paper Polis published in September outlined the potential benefits and risks of MAAS. It argued making transportation options more personalized and flexible could make car ownership less attractive and reduce automobile use, the main objective of any sustainable transportation scheme.
Linking newer transportation modes with the traditional network could also allow public transit lines operating inefficiently in low-demand areas to be replaced with less costly services, such as ride-sharing. Innisfil, Ont., a town of about 36,000 people outside of Barrie, is already experimenting with this idea by subsidizing Uber trips for its residents. The town’s mayor said it would be cheaper than buying buses.
Like other cities around the world, private sector innovators are already playing an increasingly prominent role in Toronto’s transportation network. Uber, which has been operating here since 2014, is the most wellknown interlocutor, and next month will be joined by Lyft.
Bike sharing came to Toronto in 2011in the form of the non-profit Bixi company, which has since been taken over by the municipal parking authority and rebranded Bike Share Toronto. This summer Dropbike, a bike share company that uses freestanding bicycles that don’t have to be docked at a station, also came to town.
In addition to new providers entering the fray, the division between public and private sector transportation services has blurred in other ways. The TTC now freely shares its vehicles’ GPS data, which has allowed multiple private companies to create apps that tell passengers when the next streetcar or bus will turn up at their stop.
It’s this private sector push into areas traditionally dominated by public-transit operators that Vancluysen says is the primary reason cities need to prepare for MAAS.
She argued that unless cities get ahead of the curve and set regulations for integration, MAAS platforms could end up being beneficial to commercial interests at the expense of the public good, and could undermine government policy designed to lessen dependence on cars.
If commercial entities are allowed to drive the adoption of MAAS, they might find it profitable to divert customers away from public transit to modes such as ride-sharing, which risks exacerbating traffic congestion.
There are fears ride-sharing is already having a negative effect on public transit. The TTC has warned that Uber may be one factor behind its stagnating ridership growth.
Another European expert in town for the transportation summit outlined less daunting ways in which the continent’s transit providers are shifting their focus away from traditional operations.
According to Elaine Seagriff, a commissioner for the U.K. Travel Demand Commission and the former Head of Policy & Strategy at Transport for London, transit operators in Europe are increasingly aligning themselves with the health sector to find ways to foster healthy lifestyles among an increasingly elderly population.
Seagriff said cities are putting more emphasis on reducing harmful pollution through greater public transit use, and encouraging active transportation, such as walking or cycling. They’re also partnering with private businesses, which see active transportation as a sound investment because it reduces worker absenteeism. More and more, public transit projects are leveraging private and public funds to incorporate strong walking or cycling routes into their design.
“A lot of good work has gone into that now and is becoming part of a standard appraisal of transport schemes,” she said.