Transportation: we need solutions, not sanctions
A very interesting article in Techcrunch, “Welcome to the abnormalization of transportation”, explores what happens when technological development, a lack of alternatives and new uses and habits start defining new approaches to transportation, as is happening with the disruption created by developments such as urban transport apps, rented bicycles and electric scooters, car-sharing, etc.
Flat opposition to this type of change or conservatism is a dead end: the current transportation situation in most cities is simply unsustainable. Arguing blindly that we must protect taxi-drivers’ livelihood or ban scooters ignores the fact that the vast majority of our cities are uninhabitable and will only make the situation worse. In short, we have been burying our heads in the sand about what needs to be done for too long.
We urgently need to start planning for a different future based on new alternatives that until recently did not exist or were not viable. Within a few years, most urban transportation and logistics in our cities will be carried out using autonomous vehicles, while at the same time — if we want to survive — we will witness the disappearance of internal combustion vehicles and a recognition of the idea of transportation from product to service. These changes, inevitable and impossible to ignore, raise the need for new regulations better oriented to the future, rather than simply enforcing laws designed for previous scenarios, while at the same time demanding a flexibility previously lacking on the part of our city authorities and national governments. What is the point of banning a new means of transport such as the electric scooter based on flimsy arguments about safety without providing alternatives that can help decongest our cities through sustainable mobility? What is the point of encouraging people to use bicycles if they must risk their lives sharing roads with car owners living in the past?
Open minds are required if we are to come up with transportation alternatives: solutions not sanctions. We need to systematically test the results of transportation alternatives that technology companies are coming up with, assessing the consequences of experiments and how residents are adopting new alternatives, as well as the problems that will inevitably arise. Regulators tends to systematically favor incumbents and ignore new competitors, even though the latter are often those with something new and interesting to say. We must develop a platform mentality, taking into account that all stakeholders in the urban ecosystem must contribute their data and measures for the benefit of all, rather than perpetuating situations based on shortage that only benefit a few and that reflect out-of-date ideas about the superiority of the car.
We are faced, especially in large cities, with an increasingly unsustainable situation. If we do not look for solutions based on approaches that are open to experimentation, inclusive and oriented to the future, we will only perpetuate the problems. The question we need to ask is whether our regulators have the right mentality to provide the answers we need.
(En español, aquí)
