New Cities Foundation launches “Connected Mobility Initiative” to explore future of urban transport, with support from the Toyota Mobility Foundation
- Greg Lindsay, visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, joins the New Cities Foundation as Senior Fellow to lead the Initiative
Paris, France and Tokyo, Japan – June 3, 2015. The New Cities Foundation today launched the “Connected Mobility Initiative”, with support from the Toyota Mobility Foundation, to address the critical need for metropolises worldwide to enable the efficient and viable movement of people. The Initiative will produce a set of case-based recommendations that will be made available to cities around the world. The New Cities Foundation has appointed mobility expert Greg Lindsay as Senior Fellow to lead the Initiative from 2015-16.
Urban mobility is evolving rapidly in a world where one million people move to cities every week. Change is also being driven by other factors such as technological innovations, increased constraints on energy use, deep changes in the structure of urban economies, shifting lifestyles, and new ideas about urban design.
Aging and inadequate urban transport systems have negative social and economic repercussions. For example, the local economies of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo each lose close to US$50 billion per year from traffic congestion.[1] In the United States, 42 per cent of major urban highway systems remain congested, costing the nation’s economy an estimated US$101 billion in wasted time and fuel annually.[2] In addition, the use of public transport varies dramatically across different regions. Only 1.5 per cent of residents in Dallas use public transportation to commute to work, compared with 30 per cent of New Yorkers and 62 per cent of Singaporeans.[3]
The Connected Mobility Initiative will produce an in-depth report outlining key insights and recommendations on the future of mobility for private and public sector stakeholders in different cities worldwide. A strong focus will be placed upon public sector-led innovation around connected transportation, with the aim of distilling lessons for public sector officials, technology vendors, and citizens alike. The report will also examine trends in personal mobility, with a focus on the elderly and people with disabilities.
Greg Lindsay is a non-resident senior fellow of the Atlantic Council’s Strategic Foresight Initiative. He is also a contributing writer for Fast Company, co-author of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next, a visiting scholar at New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation Policy & Management, and a senior fellow of the World Policy Institute. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, and Fortune, among many other publications.
Over the next 12 months, Lindsay will share his insights into the future of urban mobility at New Cities Foundation global events including the New Cities Summit in Jakarta (June 9 -11, 2015) and Cities on the Move, a one-day cross-sector gathering in London (October 14, 2015), as well as events by other leading organizations.
Greg Lindsay, Senior Fellow of the New Cities Foundation, said: “I’m delighted to work with the New Cities Foundation in exploring the future of urban mobility. The smart phone is becoming as significant a technology in transportation as the car. Now that Uber, Lyft, Ola, GrabTaxi, Didi Dache and others have demonstrated the potential of mobility-on-demand, the next step will be to integrate multiple modes of urban transport through information. How that happens and who owns it — will it be a public good, or privately provisioned? — will have a tremendous impact on cities in the years to come.”
John Rossant, Chairman of the New Cities Foundation, said: “Today, the world’s metropolises are simply not equipped to cope with the sheer numbers of people moving around each day and with changing urban lifestyles. Smart city leaders recognize that now is the time to re-think the modus operandi when it comes to transport options. Our new project, made possible by the Toyota Mobility Foundation, sets out to lead the way in this field, and we are delighted to have Greg Lindsay at the helm."
Latondra Newton, Chief Program Officer, Toyota Mobility Foundation, said: “The Toyota Mobility Foundation is proud to partner with the New Cities Foundation and Greg Lindsay to expand our collective understanding of the dynamics that are shaping the future of urban mobility. This Initiative reflects Toyota’s approach of partnering with others who share our innovative spirit to advance the freedom of mobility for more people everywhere.”
Ends
[1] Source: http://bit.ly/1semHNr
[2] Source: http://bit.ly/ZQcbP6
[3] Sources: http://bit.ly/xuHJ2y and http://bit.ly/GZf777 and http://bit.ly/164gnSi
International press contact:
Marina Bradbury
Communications & Media Relations Manager
New Cities Foundation
mbradbury@newcitiesfoundation.org
33 6 17 79 17 72
Yuki Taketani
Program Manager
Toyota Mobility Foundation
y.taketani@toyota-mf.org
+81 3 3817 9960
Local press contact:
Wulan Suling
Edelman Jakarta
wulan.suling@edelman.com
newcities@edelman.com
62 21 721 59000
About the New Cities Foundation
The New Cities Foundation’s mission is to shape a better urban future for all by generating and scaling ideas and solutions through events, research and urban innovation projects. In all of its activities, the Foundation works with leaders from business, government, academia, civil society, the media and the arts. Each year, the New Cities Foundation organizes the New Cities Summit, the leading global event on the future of cities. The Foundation also organizes other global initiatives including Cityquest – a community of the builders of large-scale new city projects and their partners – and Cities on the Move, an event and leadership platform on the future of urban mobility. In 2012, the Foundation led a pioneering applied research project on the impact of smart phone apps on the daily commute, entitled Connected Commuting. An independent, non-profit organization, the New Cities Foundation was created in 2010 and is financed by its members and partners. Overall, its members include some of the most forward-thinking companies, universities, cities and city organizations from around the world. The New Cities Foundation’s Founding Members are Cisco and Ericsson. The Foundation is based in Geneva and its head office is in Paris.
www.newcitiesfoundation.org
Facebook: /NewCitiesFoundation
Twitter: @newcitiesfound
About the Toyota Mobility Foundation
The Toyota Mobility Foundation, a general incorporated foundation, was established in August 2014 to provide support to non-profit organizations, research institutions, and other organizations that engage in business or other activities with high social value in the development of a better mobile society. The Foundation provides grants totaling 3.0 billion to 4.5 billion yen annually to programs designed to eliminate disparities in mobility, contribute to the sound development of automobile industries in developing countries, and to develop next-generation mobility in developed countries.
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