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Tends in Digital Age Land Transport

Five (5) key trends that will provide a framework to enable smart mobility are identified. These trends are
applied mainly to road and rail transport, though some can also be applied in air transport. These trends are
as follows:

User Centered – the digital age has changed the way passengers travel. Nowadays, individual travelers
have access to information and transport services that put them in control, meaning their choices
influence the services and business models offered by the market. Public transport is also getting personal.
To users who can dictate what they want from transport and who have high expectations of operator’s
reliability and customer service, every journey matters. These change the approach to operations and
planning based on users’ choices.

o Creating choice for passenger – the combination of the Internet, wireless connections, and
smartphones make mobility smarter and more user-centered. This is evident in the taxi market,
where smartphone users are now able to hail a cab in advance and secure a fare of their choice
(e.g. Uber, Grabi). Smart mobility systems will meet the needs of the disabled, the regular
commuter traveling a fixed route, people running errands or rushing to be at last-minute
meetings, and the ageing population.

o The customer has more information than the operator – to understand user choices and make
quick decisions, users need access to freely shared, up-to-the-minute information from operators.
Within cities, the ‘open-data’ movement is insisting public transit agencies to make their data
freely available in a widely used format so the app developers can build routes, schedules, and
other applications on top of it.

Here is how the system should end up: You have a mobile device, and it knows where you are
because it is location-aware. So, you enter where you want to go and it gives you all your options,
based on what is presently going on. It knows the best route, the existing traffic conditions, and
how much parking is available close by to your destination. Also, it knows how the trains and buses
are running. Your device can process the options and work out which is the best for you at the
present time.

Such has become a reality with digital technology; examples include Citymapper (already in 28
cities around the world, this travel app combines bus routes and live times, train timetables, and
cycle paths, and also helps travellers navigate their way around an unfamiliar metropolis); Google
Maps (can design routes on a national level); and Google Now (an app for Android and iOS, as
well as Google Chrome, that can be synchronized with calendars and understand a user’s daily
routines).

People who are becoming increasingly familiar with real-time information, places expectations on
transport operators to deliver accurate and timely information in a consistent manner. If this is
disrupted, users suffer from missed connections and frustration.

o Customer service and the digital uniform – digital uniforms take advantage of advances in mobile
devices and wearables to equip staff to respond to passengers and issues as efficiently as possible.
These make staff better informed and responsible to their customers and transport controllers.

Example: Transport for London (TfL) provided all its station staff with iPad minis with specially-
designed apps aimed to improve customer service. Apps include Station Logbook (record all
activity at a given station); Ticketing Monitoring (will let staff know when ticket machines and
gatelines need attention); and Fault Reporting (allows members of staff to report faults –
escalator damage or a cracked tile, for example – at the touch of a button). The iPads also

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include an online communication platform called Yammer, which keep employees up-to-date
with the latest business developments and encourage them to collaborate
(http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/21/all-tube-staff-will-get-ipad-minis-in-the-new-year-5578789/#ixzz46oeEFFVO).

Connecting transport employees has the potential to drive efficiency, whether that is by
powering the best digital equipment, enabling staff to work more flexibly or making it easier
for customer service agents to engage with passengers.

Integrated and Intelligent – in a hyper-connected world, the power of a network lies on connections. To
make movements as easy as possible is to link transport networks. In the same manner, the
interconnection of technology and data allows the creation of intelligent systems, which can respond in
real-time to traveler demand, and to start to predict and avoid disruption for passengers. Improvements
in computer-aided design combined with the ability to sense and measure the health of physical assets
will unite and enable radical new ways of monitoring and maintaining roads, tracks, and runways.

o Integration and open data – through the use of data sets, transport operators can create a more
accurate image of their operations and associate the running services with the actions they make.
Customers’ movements, tweets, and messages represent valuable data sources that allow
transport operators to get to know their customers and understand their preferences. Such data
help planners to modify systems in accordance with what demand dictates.

o Sensors and telematics – the movement of Information Technology (IT) into everyday objects (so
called Internet of Things) creates wide possibilities for reimagining mobility. The newest
generation of trains and buses is now networked and capable of sensing their surroundings and
communicating with their drivers and the infrastructure around them. In addition to maintenance,
the benefits also extend to safety, capacity, and the comfort of customers.

 Connected Vehicle Technology – it uses an open-source wireless technology called

Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) that lets vehicles communicate with each
other (vehicle to vehicle) and also with the roadside (vehicle to infrastructure).

 Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) Technology – it is an anonymous, vehicle-based data

exchange that would include information like position, speed, and location; it can
detect hazards and send messages to vehicles such as emergency brake light warning,
forward collision warning, and intersection movement assist.

 Vehicle to Infrastructure Technology (V2I) – it is the exchange of safety and

operational data between vehicles and the highway infrastructure. With V2I, “smart
roadways” could communicate with vehicles warning of accidents, weather incidents,
unsafe driving conditions, or traffic congestion. The main goal would be to improve
safety by mitigating 12% of crashes (mainly those not addressed by V2V technology),
but additional benefits would be improved mobility and reduced congestion and
emissions.

Pricing and Payments – digitization of tickets and payments will enable new ways to charge travelers
based on a combination of their journey and other factors such as time of day, class of travel, discounts,
and previous travel patterns.

o Digital payment methods – today, people readily expect to be able to pay by card. With the
development of applications like Apple Pay, it will become gradually important for transport
operators to offer a platform allowing varied methods of payment. It is predicted that by 2020,
90% of all transport transactions will not involve the use of a paper ticket – payments may move
from smartphone to wrists as wearable technology offers secure ways to carry digital currency.

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o Mobile Ticketing – with an Mticket, customers use their smartphones to select their destination,
pay the fare, and then show the conductor their virtual ticket. Mobile ticketing is not only more
convenient for many riders, it also provides transit systems with real-time tracking of ridership
(number of people using a transit service) and can help them plan routes and schedules to better
meet the needs of customers.

Automation and Safety – automation, in some degree, is not new to transport; it has the potential to save
millions of lives, specifically on the road. Increases in safety and changes to the nature of liability will have
a fundamental impact on the insurance industry.

o Degrees of automation – more modes of transport are frequently automatically controlled. An

example of this is the Dubai Metro, a 75-km track with all trains operated centrally without the
need for drivers. Both Copenhagen and Madrid’s metro systems are also fully-automated.

Metro systems are also candidate for investment in automation due to the limited scale of the
network, high density of passengers, and the high frequency of service. Automation allows
operators to run trains at shorter intervals, decreasing the amount of time passengers spend
waiting for a train and crowding on platforms.

o Cognitive technology – offers a new type of car, one (1) that thinks and drives like a human, but
with the collective knowledge to anticipate and avoid accidents. Arrays of sensors and cameras
will give the car 360-degree vision and allow it to judge range. This information will allow cars to
see and sense in ways that humans never could when driving. This will allow vehicles to make
intelligent decisions about every issue these encounter. Traditional automotive manufacturers
such as Volvo, Audi, Nissan, BMW, Tesla, and Mercedes Benz are now investing in this technology.
In fact, Google has already built its first real prototype in December 2014.

o Liability and insurance – while most mass modes of transport have adopted levels of automation
to increase safety, cars have the most to gain. This is because of all the transport modes,
automotive is most likely to suffer from driver failure since it involves a high level of human
involvement in vehicle control. With increased automation, insurance premiums would either fall
dramatically or disappear altogether impacting the insurance industry. Moreover, such
technological shift would move liability for accidents from the driver to the car manufacturer.

Public and Private Innovation – innovations linked with the Digital Age are quickly changing how people
travel, how operators deliver services, and how governments invest. The role of the public sector is critical
in both stimulating these advances and protecting citizens. Working together with the private sector, they
will need to build integrated transport networks to prepare the world’s urban areas for growth in
population and business investment in the coming years.

o Roles of the public and private sectors – the main roles of government are to set policy, maintain
the safety of citizens, and support the delivery of universal and inclusive transport services. But,
the hardest question always lies on how transport improvements can be funded. One (1) of the
key assumptions about roads, railways, and other transport infrastructure is that these are public
goods, and thus paid by general tax. In recent years, however, the gap between available public
funds and infrastructure needs has grown wider. Financing has been largely provided by the
private sector in the bond market. Clearly, there are challenges for the transport sector and these
should be met without spending extra public money. The government is asking the private sector
providers to address this need and devise creative new approaches.

Example: The United Kingdom (UK) Department for Transport established the UK Transport
Catapult that has encouraged innovation in the transport industry. It was the Catapult that

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developed the new rail franchise innovation fund, a mechanism designed to incentivize new
types of change in the rail industry. Such rail innovation fund embraces public-private
partnership as a basis for revolutionizing the rail industry.

o Building for the future – to meet the growing urban needs of the global population in the next 10
years, billions will be spent on infrastructure. New capital programs will need to involve
investment in technology both to ensure effective construction of new systems and to build
intelligence to get the most out of the new assets. Such programs should become smarter in the
way the use technology to understand how planning should go ahead.

User-centricity and automation will go together to deliver a more enjoyable travel experience.
Crowd-sourcing (obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contribution from a
large group of people/online community) may help determine where there is a need for
investment in asset building. It could present real-time data about the state of the networks that
passengers are most unhappy with.

Transport companies usually respond slowly to capital requirements of their networks, but digital
monitoring will transform the manner in which they respond to capacity limitations, customer
dissatisfaction, and the need to upgrade infrastructure.

o Disruptive business models – new business models are emerging in the industry. New entrants,
such as Uber and Lyft, are taking advantage of excess capacity and a sharing economy to bring
together customers and independent suppliers using digital and mobile.

The operations of private travel will also be disrupted by the choices offered by these models such
as carsharing, ride-sharing, and private mobility services, which are enabled by digital technology.

 Carsharing – a type of car rental designed to be convenient for people who want to rent
cars for short periods of times and only pay for their usage. With carsharing, costs are
mainly dependent on distance driven. The most widespread carsharing services are group-
based services, which provide either round-trip or one-way travel options. With roundtrip,
customers pick up and return a vehicle to the same location and usually pay by the hour
or the mile. Examples include Zipcar (world’s largest car sharing service available in
various cities around the world or City Car Share (a non-profit entity that provide mobility
options to the San Francisco Bay Area, California).

Another newer carsharing model is peer-to-peer, where people share the use of a private
vehicle – typically managed by a third party. With services like Relay Rides or Get Around,
car owners rent their vehicles out on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis. The companies help
match people to cars and some also provide independent insurance.

 Ridesharing – ridesharing includes carpooling, vanpooling, and real-time ridesharing

services. Apps like Lyft and Uber are examples of this trend. These applications have
features that allow individuals to share rides with other people. These new services match
drivers and passengers based on their destination. With such services, users input their
location and destination. The app creates a route and then matches people traveling the
same route to be picked up by a Lyft or Uber driver. If the services cannot find a match,
the passenger pays half the fare for a regular Lyft or Uber ride.

 Transportation Network Companies (TNC) – TNCs such as Wingz, Didi Kuaidi, Uber, Grab,
and Lyft provide an online platform that allows entrepreneurial drivers to find passengers
who are seeking one-way rides. The companies use an app-based platform and riders pay
the driver using a virtual wallet. Trip fares are generally cheaper than taxis, but the driver

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profits from the transaction. Drivers are not volunteers, rather they are ‘hired’ to provide
transportation service.

 Bikesharing – it provides a transportation option for people traveling intermediate-length

trips in urban areas. These distances may be too long to walk, and taking a taxi or public
transit may be too expensive or time consuming. Modern bikesharing programs use
information technology (IT)-based systems to rent bikes to members. People pay a
membership and/or usage fee to rent the bike for a certain time period. They can pick up
the bike in one location and drop it off at a location near their destination. The bikes
usually have a location sensor to prevent theft and to help with system management.
Worldwide, IT-based systems are in 712 cities, with a total of 806,200 bikes and 37,500
stations.

References:
A Look Ahead: Current and Future Transportation Trends. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.sustainablesanmateo.org/home/indicators-report/key-indicator/future-transportation-
trends/ on 26 April 2016
Carma. Mission. Retrieved from https://www.gocarma.com/about/ on 16 May 2016
Citymapper. Out cities. Retrieved from https://citymapper.com/about on 16 May 2016
Deloitte. (March 2015). Transport in the Digital Age (PDF file). Retrieved from
http://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/bps/deloitte-uk-transport-digital-
age.pdf on 20 April 2016
Redhead, H. (December 21, 2015). All Tube staff will get iPad minis in the new year. Retrieved from
http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/21/all-tube-staff-will-get-ipad-minis-in-the-new-year-
5578789/#ixzz46oeEFFVO on 25 April 2016
Zipcar. Where the cars are. Retrieved from http://www.zipcar.com/cities on 16 May 2016

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