SMART MOBILITY THAT COMFORTS GROWING POPULATIONS

 Article by: Suwan Juntiwasarakij, Ph.D., MEGA Tech Senior Editor

Mobility and transportation infrastructure is altogether a major driver of economic growth and competitiveness as smart mobility, or smart transportation, is the backbone to any effective smart city strategy. According to Ernst & Young’s Routes to Prosperity analysis, International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that for every dollar of investment in infrastructure, output increases by nearly three. This, moreover, is no more apparent than at the city level where growth and development challenges mean urban transport infrastructure will need to support increasing demand for mobility and driver competitiveness. Unsurprisingly, this means countless opportunities for the industries.

URBANIZATION & TRANSPORTATION

The United Nation released that the most urbanized regions, today, include Northern America (with 82 % of its population living in urban areas in 2018), Latin America and the Caribbean (81 %), Europe (74 %) and Oceania (68%). The level of urbanization in Asia is now approximating 50 %. In contrast, Africa remains mostly rural, with 43 % of its population living in urban areas. The urban population of the world has grown rapidly since 1950, having increased from 751 million to 4.2 billion in 2018.

Asia, despite being less urbanized than most other regions today, is home to 54 % of the world’s urban population, followed by Europe and Africa (13 % each). Growth in the urban population is driven by overall population increase and by the upward shift in the percentage living in urban areas. Together, these two factors are projected to add 2.5 billion to the world’s urban population by 2050, with almost 90 % of this growth happening in Asia and Africa.

Half the world’s population now lives in cities and forecasts from the United Nations reveals that this proportion will rise to three-quarters by 2050. This would result in substantial growth in infrastructure demands. To illustrate, the number of vehicles in the world’s transport networks exceeded 1.1 billion in 2011 and has been expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050. Moreover, 75 percent of cities’ infrastructure that will be place by 2050 does exist today, according to the World Bank. People who live in the cities need transport to access jobs, service, and amenities, but current urban transport networks are often not convenient, flexible, or affordable. Where they already exist, many struggle to keep up with increased ridership or maintain aging infrastructure.

STRATEGIZING SMART MOBILITY

A collection of technological-philosophical strategies, smart mobility or smart transportation is among the often-cites city management approaches designed to cope with dramatic populations growth. According to Ernst & Young’s Urban Mobility Blueprint, smart, integrated mobility strategies yields substantial economic rewards. In this regards, five mobility business strategies variants are identified which based on the level of mobility end-services elements, including real-time information, a one-stop payment system and connected transport modes. These strategies are at varied levels of complexity within the value chain, and consequently, bring different risks and rewards to the participants. This is due to aligning transport infrastructure with a city’s purposes. Smart transportation infrastructure has the potential to transform a city – and to help shore up economic growth well into the future. In so doing, policy-makers however need to ensure that they are asking the right questions as they develop their smart strategies.

TAKE-HOME OPPORTUNITIES

The shortcoming blue prints will generate many players in a cluster of related industries. According to Start-up and Investment Landscape Analysis (SILA), significant investment activities in mobility technologies are nearly $111 billion in disclosed transaction since 2010 in more than 1,000 companies across ten technology clusters. Surprising, less than a third of these relate to shared-mobility companies whereas the rest focus on the trends of automation and connectivity. Out of the $111 billion, more than 60 percent come from large investments with disclosed transaction value greater than $1 billion, and the rest from small investments.

However, once can learn much more from these smaller investments because they are related to smaller companies with special capabilities or technology. The large transactions, on the other hand, tend to be industry-shaping moves made on established companies. Understanding small players and start-ups is crucial to efficient technology sourcing.