Shifting Mobility Part 2
Shifting Mobility Part 2
Subtitle: Part 1- Shifting Mobility - Part 2: Envisioning Shared Multimodal Mobility Ecosystem
Edition: 1st Edition
Author: Dewan Masud Karim
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Description
Embark on a journey into the heart of a new industrial revolution—one that promises to redefine human mobility for generations to come. In this groundbreaking exploration, we confront the promises and perils of new mobility, navigating the intricate landscape where technology intersects with urban society. As cities evolve and technology shapes our daily lives, the ethical dimensions of this transformation remain largely uncharted territory. Amidst the rapid advancement of new mobility systems, this book sheds light on the moral dilemmas and philosophical underpinnings that often go unnoticed. From the ethical implications of technology to the systemic flaws in planning and design, we delve into the core of this paradigm shift. By understanding the foundational principles of mobility and the hidden codes that govern human movement, we pave the way for a more equitable and inclusive future. At the heart of this transformative vision lies a comprehensive framework for building a new mobility ecosystem—one that prioritizes human well-being and equity above all else. Through innovative planning processes and redesign concepts, we aim to bridge the gap between technology and society, ensuring that every individual has access to safe, efficient, and sustainable modes of transportation. From low-emission vehicles to multimodal transit hubs, this book presents a blueprint for reimagining urban spaces and redefining the way we move. By embracing shared values and collective responsibility, we strive to create a world where mobility is not just a privilege, but a fundamental human right. As we embark on this journey towards a more sustainable future, let us remember that the true measure of progress lies not in technological innovation alone, but in our ability to build communities that thrive together. Join us in shaping the future of mobility—one where humanity and equity reign supreme.
Table of Contents
- Part 1: Shifting Towards a New Multimodal Ecosystem
- Chapter 1: Emergence of a New Multimodal Mobility Ecosystem.
- Chapter 2: Artificially Sensing Mobility DNA.
- Part 2: Treating Unsustainable Automobile Usage
- Chapter 3: Shared Personal Vehicles: Toward Low Car Ownership.
- Chapter 4: Sharing Personal Rides: Toward Higher Occupancy.
- Part 3: Reimagining Active and Mass Mobility
- Chapter 5: Active and Micro-mobility Ecosystems.
- Chapter 6: Reinventing Public Transit.
- Part 4: Reimagining Automation and MaaS Mobility
- Chapter 7: Automated and Connected Shared Mobility Ecosystem.
- Chapter 8: Bringing it all together: Digital Mobility (-as-a-Service).
Key Concepts
- Shareable Demand Management
- Mobility’s Missing Middle
- The Shifting Scale
- Access Shed
- Shared Well-being
- Shared Equity
- Mobility Intelligence
- Artificial Sensing
- Mobility Snapshot
- Automation Boundary
- Carshare Framework & Design Form
- Rideshare Framework & Design Form
- Active & Micromobility Framework
- Micromobility Design Form
- Flexible Transit Framework
- Transitscape: Elements of Transit Facility Design
- Ecosystem of Digital Mobility
- Phygital Mobility
- Equitable Digital Mobility
- MaaS Customization
Shareable Demand Management
With the rise of shared mobility systems, it was assumed they would control demand, but the past decade proved otherwise. This book proposes direct mobility demand control instead of relying solely on technology. Every new mobility product increases demand and strains space, resources, and policy. By setting boundary limits and charging high premiums for excessive use, the system can redistribute funds to support priority users, reduce unaffordable travel expenses, stay within environmental limits, and fund planning, redesign, and equitable mobility needs.
Mobility’s Missing Middle
Urban mobility typically consists of two extremes: long-distance travel via vehicles and transit, and short-distance modes like walking and cycling. However, policies rarely connect these ends. Bridging this “missing middle” calls for regulated shared mobility, micromobility, and flexible transit that align with built-form diversity. These low-emission, space-efficient modes can carry 4–16 times more people using the space of a single car. By introducing this flexibility, cities can ease tensions between car- and transit-focused planning and build context-sensitive mobility ecosystems.
The Shifting Scale
Despite many city policies aiming to reduce vehicle use, practical tools and resources to meet these goals remain missing. The shift from car dependency is possible by introducing a “missing middle” of mobility services. A multimodal ecosystem can replace car convenience—but it requires data-driven methods to measure the scale of this shift. This book's "shifting scale" approach uses mobility behaviour data to identify where and how different mode combinations can replace cars and support everyday mobility needs.
Access Shed
A core pillar of a human mobility DNA-based ecosystem is understanding how far people can walk or wheel to access services. Walking distances vary by mode, purpose, and user demographics. Transit-oriented planning often overlooks these differences, assuming a standard adult user. Seniors, parents with kids, or those carrying loads face unique limits. The access shed concept (Fig. 1.5) redefines these distances, considering social and physical factors. At its core is the multimodal eco-mobility hub, supporting a “network effect” for an inclusive, shifting, and physital mobility ecosystem.
Shared Well-being
The silence around human well-being in new mobility planning is both surprising and expected. Digital mobility advances often favor wealthy, white-majority areas. This book proposes a mobility ecosystem rooted in equity by integrating well-being indicators, true measures of life quality, instead of outdated economic metrics. Drawing from systems thinking, it introduces two core ideas: mobility boundaries and mobility forms, ensuring all planning maximizes well-being and aligns with local urban form through diverse, low-emission options across all neighborhoods.
Shared Equity
Shared mobility introduced new modes and filled the “missing middle” in transportation, but without values or regulation, equity and human rights remain elusive in today’s fluid modernity. This book presents concepts to embed user values and rights into shared mobility, including a one-stop multimodal ecomobility hub in every neighbourhood for equal access. It promotes diverse fleets, user-sensitive priorities, and equitable pricing. Flexispace and flexiflow principles reallocate space for high-occupancy, efficient modes—anchoring equity in the shared fabric of urban life.
Mobility Intelligence
Beneath the hype around big data and AI lies the challenge of adopting new technologies responsibly. AI is advanced analytics; big data is systematic data collection, ranging from historical to real-time streams. Traditional mobility planning often fails due to outdated, vehicle-focused methods. AI in mobility is still immature, facing issues like ethics, moral decision-making, oversimplified models, cultural resistance, understanding human environments and movement, and high costs. Addressing these seven key barriers is essential before widespread, effective AI adoption in mobility.
Artificial Sensing
Despite new data revealing true human mobility patterns, transportation planners have largely ignored using these insights or AI to improve travel behavior models and forecasts. Instead, newcomers like computer scientists and physicists are stepping in to fill gaps. This exposes flaws in traditional forecasting, drawing sharp criticism from city planning experts. Different fields use varied data and methods, creating unsustainable silos. This section highlights opportunities to bridge these divides and reshape mobility planning toward an affordable, sustainable system benefiting all residents, not just privileged groups.
Mobility Snapshot
To improve mobility services, most current systems extract private lifestyle data, often unethically. This book offers a new approach by introducing the concept of a “human mobility code,” shared as a simplified data snapshot—like a photo of one’s mobility DNA. Users can use this snapshot to choose from tailored multimodal options, while service providers offer customized, equity-based packages. This model prioritizes personal and societal well-being, helping individuals avoid harmful mobility choices through ethical, informed design.
Automation Boundary
Without setting clear boundaries for automated mobility, we risk repeating the societal damage caused by car-centric planning. This book introduces the concept of mobility boundaries to guide the appropriate use of automation, challenging the push for mass personal autonomous vehicles. It explores the real-world limits of technology—crashes, emissions, affordability, and sprawl—within a sensible framework. The goal is to define when automation can truly help, positioning it as a limited, supportive tool—not the centerpiece—of future mobility ecosystems.
Carshare Framework & Design Form
The evolution of carsharing is complex, shifting from informal vehicle sharing to a systematic enterprise driven by technology. Digital platforms transformed fixed-location models into free-floating, decentralized systems reaching more users. Future vehicle technologies will further reshape carsharing, requiring updated policies, planning, and infrastructure. While frameworks like those from Shared-Use Mobility Center and SAE define carsharing types, connections to mobility infrastructure and city planning remain unclear. This review proposes a comprehensive ecosystem framework to guide policy, design, and infrastructure for successful carsharing systems.
The relationship between built form and carshare is emerging, with design principles easier to develop using ecosystem and user behavior insights. Four carshare forms match land-use types: (1) On-street Floating in dense downtowns with frequent bays and green sidewalk bump-outs; (2) Transit Supportive near transit hubs converting park-and-ride lots into multimodal hubs; (3) Mobility Park in suburban centers with designated carshare parking and amenities; and (4) Decentralized for low-density areas with scattered peer-to-peer spots. A citywide guideline is needed to integrate carshare into green, human-friendly streetscapes with safety, accessibility, and comfort.
Rideshare Framework & Design Form
Developing a ridesharing framework balancing private and public interests is complex. Public agencies often resist integrating private services, but a holistic approach can unite private, non-profit, and public sectors. A system-wide structure addressing service types, demand, supply, infrastructure, and policy gaps is crucial. Various ridesharing modes—from ridehailing and ridesplitting to vanpools and shared goods delivery—offer distinct benefits and challenges. Effective integration requires careful planning of space, equity, and coordination to improve urban mobility sustainably.
Active & Micromobility Framework
Active and micromobility, despite being the oldest and fastest-growing mobility modes, remain poorly understood by the public and planners, leading to flawed designs. This section proposes a clear framework based on recent standards to define active modes like walking and traditional bicycles, and micromobility modes such as e-bikes, scooters, and skateboards. It also covers shared micromobility systems like bikesharing and scootersharing, highlighting the need to integrate emerging small vehicles into this evolving ecosystem for better mobility planning.
Micromobility Design Form
The micromobility system struggles with storage: fixed stations often overflow or are hard to find, while free-floating devices cause clutter and hazards. Cities and operators still lack consistent solutions, despite innovations in traditional bike parking. A mix of fixed, semi-fixed, shared, and digital micro-ecomobility forms can address the issue, including hubs near transit or on-street, private rentals, or digitally geofenced zones. These must balance form, function, accessibility, and integration with public space, user demand, and environmental goals, as illustrated in design layouts and strategies in this section.
Flexible Transit Framework
Public transit, despite its much older history than private vehicles, still struggles across North American cities, unlike in Europe or East Asia where it thrives due to denser land use. However, rigid systems and planning layers hinder innovation and flexibility, from access and routing to vehicle types and design forms. Transit often fails to respond to real needs—overemphasizing fixed routes, large vehicles, and car-centric infrastructure while ignoring multimodal hubs, equity, and disruption resilience. This chapter outlines how flexible models—shared, adaptive, and demand-responsive—can create more equitable, efficient, and sustainable transit systems for all users.
Transit agencies often develop 5-, 10-, or 20-year service master plans, but rapid shifts in technology and user behavior often render them outdated. Most plans lack a flexible, foundational transit framework adaptable to emergencies or new conditions. This section explores gaps in flexibility and technology in four modes: fixed-track transit, street-based surface transit, flexible transit (macro/microtransit), and special-purpose transit. Macrotransit bridges service gaps in off-peak hours or low-density areas, while microtransit serves niche mobility needs. Special-purpose transit targets personal trips often ignored by traditional systems but crucial for reducing private car use.
Transitscape: Elements of Transit Facility Design
Planning transit facilities at stations and stops requires integrating engineering, operations, and urban design—but faces major challenges. Key data on transit usage, activity patterns, and space demand are often missing or ignored, making design decisions difficult. Best practices in urban design for stops and stations are scarce, and available resources focus narrowly on hardware or traffic needs. Critical issues like user comfort, safety, and environmental factors are overlooked. Transit staff often lack proper training, experience, or design knowledge, widening the gap between policy and reality.
Ecosystem of Digital Mobility
Digital mobility often starts small but fails when simplified too much. Unlike permanent physical infrastructure, digital platforms must offer personalized, real-time, reliable, and user-friendly features with long-term commitment. Current models lack practical frameworks and tend to favor vehicle-centered approaches. Effective digital integration requires multi-level service layers, public-private cooperation, and regulatory harmony to meet social and environmental goals. True success depends on understanding local context, user needs, and mobility habits, creating flexible, inclusive, and trusted platforms beyond mere technology hype.
Phygital Mobility
COVID-19 revealed both the strengths and weaknesses of our digital lives, especially in managing travel demand. While some digital solutions offered lasting benefits, they also deepened inequality and excluded many from vital in-person experiences and quality public spaces. This book introduces the concept of ‘phygital mobility’—blending physical and digital movement to match our unique mobility DNA. It urges a shift from car-centric comfort to equitable, multimodal systems that resist techno-feudalism by preserving inclusive, permanent physical-digital mobility integration for future living and working.
Equitable Digital Mobility
Despite denial, social inequality remains embedded in the global economic system, growing steadily (OECD, 2015). Mobility reflects this systemic inequality, much like Ford capitalism’s failed promise of equality. Digital mobility platforms should not be expected to solve society’s problems but must avoid worsening inequalities. They present an opportunity to embed equity, societal goals, and travel demand management. True integration requires addressing social exclusion, fair access, policy alignment, partnerships, sustainability, resiliency, and key factors like physical infrastructure and personalized mobility solutions, evolving gradually through seven progress layers.
MaaS Customization
Traditional urban mobility focuses on collective behavior, shaping policies and infrastructure for mass movement, often assuming behavior is defined by geography, culture, and past trends. While these factors influence us, relying solely on socioeconomic status and attitudes is too deterministic and can lead to flawed assumptions. Individual mobility culture arises from socioeconomic context, identity, and societal boundaries. To promote low-emission mobility, we need personalized digital packages tailored to individual needs, balancing personal preferences with social equity and demand management to maximize societal benefits.