Experts: Thomas Küchler (Schweizerische Südostbahn AG)
Recent years have seen a real boom in new mobility concepts. In many places in Switzerland, new projects and initiatives have thus emerged, aiming to reduce dependence on private motorised transport and to create services that complement traditional public transport.
Picture: Cardmapr, Unsplash
There is no general definition of mobility concepts. Sometimes they are referred to with terms like ‘new mobility’ or ‘mobility 4.0’. In general, mobility concepts comprise the envisaged goals, the measures leading to them and the new business models that such new forms of mobility entail.
As much as mobility concepts differ, and can vary due to regional differences, it is becoming equally apparent that in the future, mobility will be characterised by a networking of various modes of transport. In other words, it will be multimodal and use sharing-based concepts so that the distinction between private and collective transport blurs. Future-oriented mobility concepts typically consist of a well-developed public transport system supplemented by low-threshold on-demand services and also include accessible car-sharing or ride-sharing services. On the whole, mobility concepts aim to make transport more cost-effective and sustainable. They also strive to bring mobility to people who only have limited access to it today.
On the customer side, the emphasis is on services that satisfy the need to change location using the most efficient, rapid or cost-effective combination of various modes of transport. International research and development efforts are focusing on mobility-as-a-service applications, meaning services that combine different modes of transport within a single service.
In recent years, capacity increases in public transport have mostly led to more traffic, rather than changing the modal split in such a way that public transport makes up a higher percentage of total traffic. With the increase in traffic, the distances travelled are also growing. Enabling the transport sector to make its contribution to climate protection and accommodate the growing demand, will require new concepts that encourage residents and visitors to make less use of private motorised transport.
Currently, the number of new forms of mobility on offer is growing vigorously, with pilot projects underway in many places across different regions. In cities and suburban areas, the aim is mostly to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the already well-developed public transport system, while in more rural areas, the goal is to provide services that reduce dependence on private motorised transport. This can only be achieved by permanently establishing a reliable mobility system that meets the needs of residents and visitors.
Various initiatives are working with companies to launch projects that encourage staff to make less use of private motor vehicles, either carpooling or by cycling to work (as promoted by the ‘Bike to Work’ initiative). The somewhat different project ‘Alpine Mobility’ is trying to tackle the problem that in rural areas, public transport does not have nearly as dense a network of stops as in urban centres. To this end, services that complement public transport are being developed in cooperation with the association mybuxi, which offers a taxi and shuttle service run by volunteer drivers.
In the longer term, a digital representation of all traffic flows will become a cornerstone of the development of new forms of mobility. This will help to manage offerings, allocate transport resources more efficiently and avoid congestion.
Many projects involving new mobility concepts use providers that are not considered licensed public transport operators. Financing is therefore not regulated. Hence, such projects are dependent on funding programmes and do not have a permanent source of financing, e.g. via reallocation of public transport funds. In addition, such pilot projects often run for too short a time to build lasting trust or to bring about any actual change in mobility habits.
There are currently efforts to establish a national mobility data infrastructure (MODI) that would allow data to be shared between the various market players. How such a platform could be realised and what functional scope it should have are questions yet to be conclusively answered. Various market players say the process is too slow and are launching their own initiatives: for instance, the cities of Basel, Bern and Zurich have launched a joint initiative.
Mobility-as-a-service applications open doors for new business models. It is becoming apparent that in the future, mobility will dissolve the boundary between private and collective mobility, and that services combining elements from both domains will become established. This includes selecting routes and stops so that they best meet the needs of customers and help to avoid traffic jams. This should make it possible to control traffic according to the situation.
Resources, land, building materials and even energy are too cheap because external costs are not priced in. Thus, the transport sector continues to pass on costs to the general public. No country is willing to really tackle the issue of mobility pricing and thus create more cost transparency. Moreover, the influence of the construction and automotive industries remains as strong as ever. As a result, there is little political interest in making transport more efficient overall, i.e. in making better use of the existing infrastructure, as this would delay further expansion of the transport network and, consequently, further investment.
Switzerland has a good existing basis for implementation of any new mobility concepts. However, there is not the courage or will to launch large-scale experimental projects that are part of an overall strategy and holistic transport concept. If large internet corporations, which have huge amounts of mobility data at their disposal, jump in to fill this gap, democratic control over mobility will, to a certain extent, be taken away.
In recent years, a number of projects involving new mobility concepts have emerged. This is partly due to new funding schemes, such as those run by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE). Successfully channelling money into projects that eliminate the need to expand infrastructure and thus free up resources would secure medium- to long-term funding for many projects.
