Redefining public transportation

A common science fiction trope is a major catastrophe about to hit Earth and its inhabitants and a hero (usually a white male American) saving the day with a stroke of genius. In some cases, it's enough to save everyone while in others, only some humans get to see the light of the next day. What's common to all these movies is a complete lack of discussion about what happens afterwards.

Today, most of us in lockdown are eagerly awaiting the end of this forced incarceration. Many of us probably have plans , small and large. What's missing is an acceptance of the fact that the world has changed forever, specifically urban lifestyles. The impact is across three critical parts of our lives: transport, socialisation and professional work. This post will cover the impact on transportation.

In June 2018, McKinsey came out with this well researched report comparing urban transportation systems across global cities in Asia, Europe and the Americas. It indicated that only well developed countries with a high per capita GDP would be able to deliver a consistent experience for citizens in terms of ease and access to transportation services.

In the last month, public transportation agencies globally have been hit hard. Apart from the natural drop in riders, they are also struggling with staff shortages, maintenance of vehicles and ensuring funds for survival. Some of this is because the goals of public transportation has been vacillating. Governments and citizens expect access, comfort and value for money while competing with VC funded startups. Many public transit firms have been privatised , which means their focus is on short term profits rather than investing in the long term. More often than not, this translates to higher fares and a focus on high volume routes. An article on the New York subways illustrates this beautifully. Over time, the New York subways shut certain lines as they had to battle with private car ownership and rising costs. This meant that people who would otherwise choose public transportation had to look for alternative modes of transport, further reducing the demand for public transit in the long run.

In today's times, public transportation is a need for the folks at the front lines of the pandemic. Be it health workers, government employees or logistics personnel, they need safe convenient public transportation options. Once the pandemic gets over, citizens will want better and safer transportation options. Personnel working in alternative transportation channels will either have moved on or will reconsider the gig economy. However urban development will continue, if not accelerate. At the same time, citizens and governments will expect greater transparency and predictability in transit. It's a great opportunity for many developing countries/cities to revamp their infrastructure and provide higher quality transportation services.

Here is where smart cities can really come into play. What we need is an integrated solution which allows citizens to share information on their travel/purchase needs and for businesses (transport/otherwise) to use this information to optimise their fleet and routes. These systems can also help ensure better tracing of people post the pandemic, in case of relapses/ second round of infections. For e-commerce/retail firms, the data can help them understand clusters of purchases and help them invest better in dark stores/cross-docking models or Electric autonomous vehicles for last mile transportation.

While developed nations already have some of the elements in place, this is a great opportunity for developing nations in Asia and Africa to adopt the following 3 stage plan:

1. Bring together all stakeholders across different income levels

A constant refrain from many migrants and daily wage workers is that investments in public transportation doesn't take their considerations into account. Equally importantly, it does not take into account how jobs will change and where they will shift to. A clear strategy needs to be developed to not just account for current high density locations but also for future development regions.

2. Invest in clean renewable energy driven transportation

Climate change is on the horizon and the pandemic has given us a great chance to reduce vehicle driven pollution. We have startups like Reva and Lithium in India, Tesla in the US promoting electric vehicles. What's needed is a strong investment from the government in promoting energy creation at the household level(financial incentive to install solar panels and sell electricity to the grid) and adoption of electric vehicles in public transportation (cars, metros and buses to be electric operated and purchasing power from citizen networks) . Ideally this should be in conjuction with the World Bank or with a PPP (Public private partnership) model to ensure that the project has long term financial sustainability

3. Create financial incentives for adoption

The idea of carbon credits failed for two reasons - it became a hack for companies who continued to pollute the environment and the underlying concept itself was flawed as trees could not consume as much carbon as was being created.

For public transportation initiatives to succeed, we cannot have a subsidy driven model as much as financial incentives tied to adoption and usage. These incentives can be in the form of tax credits for individuals/ firms adopting public transportation. It could also be in the form of tax benefits given to firms who set up offices /residential complexes in new development areas close to public transportation hubs. For manufacturers, adoption of the smart city transportation model for raw materials/processed goods should come with a long term contractual model or with a lease model. E-Commerce/Retail firms can also get benefits for investing in warehouses/dark stores built according to the smart city data insights. These benefits can range from a reduced transportation rate to long term tax benefits for job creation.

P.S: 99 Percent Invisible has a great podcast on how the language used in the Mexico Metro built for the 1986 Olympics was a huge boost to help people navigate and use the metro system to explore the city. So along with all the other points mentioned above, communication and design aspects would also be critical contributors to making the smart city projects succeed.