The Great Transport Hack
Our transport system is under immense pressure. Advancing technology is changing the way we travel and our transport and mobility options, and we’re becoming increasingly concerned about the environment. What can we learn from emerging tech trends, shaping transport based on people, and will mobility as a service take off?
01. Technology hacks reinventing transport
Getting transport right is essential for modern living. It’s critical for economies to thrive: it generates jobs, enables trade, creates opportunities for growth and allows communities to connect. Yet transport accounts for 20% of the world’s CO 2 emissions and our current transport system in the UK is not fit for the changing UK demographic. To add to this, the number of cars on our roads is set to double by 2050. So how do we make sure people, communities, and goods continue to stay connected and move freely in a more environmental and sustainable way? There’s no one answer and one thing is for sure, the road to the future promises to be long, chaotic and complex. Technology naturally forms a big part of it.
So what are the emerging trends?
You’d have to have been living under a rock recently not to notice the increased interest and predictions being made for the rise in electric and autonomous vehicles. Along with this naturally comes talk about the perceived benefits: reduced emissions, cheaper running costs, increased safety. There is also debate about the true extent of these benefits and speculation with regard to the second and third order consequences of such a revolutionary transformation in the way we get around.
However, the transport sector is already gearing up to turn London into an electric city. Buses and taxis are already changing to promote cleaner air in the capital, and TfL has already vowed that all taxis in the City will be electric by 2033. And with the average household in the UK spending £80.80 per week on transport, according to the Office for National Statistics, it’s no wonder people are taking notice In addition, the UK government has ploughed half a billion pounds into testing connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). All this with a view that autonomous vehicles could be on London’s roads as soon as 2021, but to actually make this happen will require the efforts of many diverse companies with a variety of capabilities.
Obviously, transport is not just about cars. We’ve heard about high-speed rail for a while now and just last month the UK Government gave the green light to the HS2 project, which will connect Britain’s four largest metros. HS2 is a 330 mile stretch of new high-speed railway and would connect London with Birmingham and then go onwards to connect Manchester and Leeds. With speeds of up to 250 miles per hour, high-speed rail could drastically change the shape of travel, and if executed well, could move people away from roads and popular domestic flight routes.
You can’t really consider congestion on our roads without considering the impact of commercial vehicles — not least of all delivery vehicles. Crazy as it currently seems, drone adoption is something that appears to be growing among consumer brands, with the retail industry leading the way. In particular, Amazon, UPS and even Domino’s are investing in drone delivery services. Products delivered by drone are being hailed as the future of e-commerce fulfillment. Many retail brands and logistic companies are testing it as a future service. If and when the results of this early experimentation become a reality it has the potential to greatly impact the number of vehicles on our roads.
SPOTLIGHT
Why we ran a cab service from our office in London to learn about the future of transport
Fluxx and our partners Atkins ran an experiment in Cambridge to get commuters out of their cars and into public transport, without investing in infrastructure. To understand the problems customers face we journeyed with local commuters. This helped us uncover the actual problems people face and helped us shape a service that adds value and see how they’d react to a Mobility as a Service product.
We knew we needed a billing relationship with the customer, a brand and an app installed on their phone. Enter a new service: Zume, an ondemand commuter shuttle service in Cambridge, our way of getting people to and from work in a way that didn’t involve using their car. Zume simulated an on-demand mobility service for people commuting from near-by towns and we partnered with a local cab firm.
Next up we recruited 10 local commuters to test Zume, their number one requirement? ‘Don’t make me late for work!’ So no pressure! Our experiment made us realise: yes, you can get people out of their cars, if you understand customer pain points and build a service that works for its users. We also discovered that designing a new seamless on-demand transport system isn’t going to be easy, and we now know why it’s difficult to get people out of their cars, which is incredibly valuable for our thinking around the future.
02. WHAT COMES FIRST: PEOPLE OR THE SYSTEM?
A focus on people is central to the future of mobility. To truly realise the full potential and opportunities that technology offers, we need to understand people’s travel behaviour. The landscape is changing — there are a number of social trends affecting mobility and the future of the transport system:
- Cities in the UK are growing. Big cities are becoming skewed towards a younger demographic: many who are educated, affluent, non-car owning and geared towards rental.
- Changing attitudes and behaviours: people are travelling less compared to 20 years ago. Walking has declined, dependency on cars is decreasing in some areas yet growing in others with the ageing populations seeing it as an ‘easier’ mode of transport. Younger people tend to be much more conscious of their carbon footprint and are changing attitudes towards environmental norms.
- The rise of the sharing economy and digital growth: people are working from home more, reducing the need for travel. The internet allows instant access and more remote working — i.e maintenance engineers can remotely service clients and no longer need to travel and be physically present.
Transport is not just a single decision anymore, people and companies are making transport decisions as part of wider choices including lifestyle, work, family, connectivity and accessibility. All of these factors will have a huge impact on the future of transport and will need to be considered as part of the design of any future travel system so that it works for its users. It’s central to the successful adoption and, ultimately the acceptance, of a new system.
03. ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE AT THE HEART.
There’s a growing need for practical and systematic change with transportation choices at its heart. If we’re to move towards a sustainable future, the relationship between transport and environmental issues is one of the most crucial elements.
Continued growth in transport services and traffic volume has already impacted hugely on our environment. With the number of cars set to rise, and the already heavily congested roads accentuating the problem further, we know something needs to be done.
And it’s being noticed. People’s awareness of the issues are increasing and recently we’ve seen a shift in attitudes. People are thinking about their choices and behaviour at an individual level. And they demand the same from the products and services they use. This coupled with the availability of greener automotive alternatives, and all the cost benefits that come with it, means we’re seeing an incredibly rapid move towards environmental consciousness.
City authorities are also taking notice. They’re taking a harder line on pollution, for example Bristol is set to become the UK’s first city to ban diesel cars from entering parts of the city in a bid to cut air pollution. Investment in infrastructure is also set to improve as cities invest and promote greener modes of transport to meet the demand of electric powered and personal modes of transport i.e bikes and scooters. In addition, the UK Government is committed to banning the sale of new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars by 2035.
Change must happen if there is any road to the future and we know it’s going to be long and complex. Despite the universal scale of change that is needed, transportation requirements are very local — even individual — which we believe brings the need for highly effective collaboration between worldwide monolithic brands, international and complex businesses alongside smaller government bodies and borough councils.
WHAT IF: WE COULD OFFER MOBILITY AS A SERVICE?
Mobility as a service is often cited as the future of mobility. Imagine, moving seamlessly from one place to another utilising the most suitable mix of public and private transportation with suggestions tailored according to your own specific preferences and the purpose of your current journey. Whatever your chosen route, there’s no ticket required, no barriers to impede your progress, no requirement for cash to change hands. You can control your monthly travel budget and have it reflected in the suggestions offered to you. Outside of major European cities, such as Helsinki and London, this seamlessness is a million miles from what we experience today, but there’s an inevitability about it.
Finland is already demonstrating that a seamless way of using all modes of public transport is a possible future norm. The current poster child for MaaS, Whim, was launched by MaaS Global in Helsinki in 2016. Whim is the first all-inclusive MaaS solution — the mobile app enables route planning, booking, ticketing and payment options combining various methods of transportation such as rail, bus, taxis and rental cars. With over 6 million trips made since its full launch in 2017. With fresh investment from the likes of BP Ventures and Mitsui Corporation, and the MaaS Global’s plans to reach new markets, we see this as strong contender for the future of transport.
A BIT ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
I’m a professional design thinker. I’m fascinated by technology. However, twenty years of working in design has taught me that you have to put people first. This is part of the reason why I’m willing to spend so much of my time sharing everyday journeys and commutes with folk to better understand the gloriously messy facts of metropolitan mobility. A reluctant car driver, I finally caved in and passed my test at the ripe old age of 28. At the time, this made me an outlier amongst my peer group.I would very much like to think that I was pre-empting the current trend amongst millennials of taking nearly a decade to take to the road. Though I wouldn’t deny the benefits of personal car ownership, I’m increasingly looking for a way out of being the custodian of a gas guzzling, dumb hunk of metal. I would rather be cycling than driving
If you’d like to see ways we’ve helped companies and could help yours, take a look at our site: Fluxx.uk.com, subscribe to our newsletter and/or read the free download of our new book What we get wrong about people.
Dean Wilson is a Managing Consultant at Fluxx, a company that uses experiments to understand customers, helping clients to build better products. To find out more about our work with More Than, Vogue, Ada and Vodafone. Email Dean at dean.wilson@fluxx.uk.com
