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2.4.2015 | Intelligent mobility
Intelligent mobility:
a new direction
Is technology prompting a shift in commuter behaviour?
How is this likely to affect the transportation sector in
Asia Pacific and what might the future look like?
Imagine a typical city in Asia, with
unexceptional transport links, heavy
traffic during peak hours and a
growing population. For residents,
getting from A to B isn’t a question
of luxury or convenience: for most,
it’s a necessary daily grind.
This situation is particularly true
in many emerging Asian Pacific
economies, where rising wealth
and vehicle ownership has far
outstripped infrastructure
investment, leading to bottlenecks.
What could be done to change
that picture, in a sustainable
way, for everyone’s benefit?
As technology evolves, the answer
may be just around the corner.
Technology is already influencing
commuter choices and behaviours
in many cities in Asia Pacific from
the growth of online taxi booking
offered by innovative companies like
Uber to the rise in smart journey
planners, but these individual
activities also reflect a potential
new approach to travel planning.
The emergence of “mobility as a
service” (MaaS) – the interaction
of information and technology,
coupled with a rise in sharingbased economies – offers a new
and more connected approach
to influencing travel behaviour
and the players in the industry,
policies, and vice versa.
MaaS provides a single platform
that combines all transport
options in a simple and integrated
way. Its aim is to get customers
from A to B, rather than focusing
on individual transport modes
and services.
How will MaaS change the way
we view our travel options?
We asked three experts in Asia
Pacific for their views on this
changing transport landscape.
2.4.2015 | Intelligent mobility
Jonathan Spear,
technical director,
Atkins in asia Pacific
Mobility has already undergone
several revolutions. During the first
industrial revolution in Europe and
North America in the 19th
century, railways and fixed public
transport networks supported the
concentration of population
and employment within newly
emerging cities.
In the 20th century, mass
produced private motor vehicles
underpinned the suburbanisation
of these cities and decentralisation
of activities into the surrounding
countryside, encouraged by
growing consumer choice,
freedom of movement and desire
for an enhanced quality of life.
Yet the growth in travel demand,
combined with rapid motorisation,
has also led to pressing and
universal urban challenges for
travellers, communities and public
agencies. Traffic congestion has
become endemic, imposing costs
and inconvenience on private and
public transport users alike. Rising
car ownership and urban sprawl
have eroded the countryside and
stretched the physical and
financial viability of fixed transit
networks. Hundreds of thousands
are killed or seriously injured in
road traffic accidents each year
and those without access to a
private car have seen their access
to opportunities fall behind. And
the reliance of the transport sector
on fossil fuels has contributed to
deteriorating air quality and
growing greenhouse gas
emissions, with implications for
public health, ecosystems and
the global climate.
Intelligent mobility offers a new,
exciting and rapidly accelerating
paradigm – through increasingly
autonomous, connected and
clean vehicles, personalised travel
information and demand-responsive
travel. While the range of new
business models and players,
blurring of the public and private
sectors and the sharing of data
will inevitably be disruptive, the
ultimate prize is to put customer
choice and experience first, deliver
sustainable economic growth,
and equalise and democratise
opportunity for all citizens.
It is clear, however, realising these
benefits cannot rely on the old
methods; cities will need to scan
multiple technologies, anticipate a
range of potential future outcomes,
continuously innovate and reinvent
themselves, and assemble
collaborative partnerships across
government, academia and industry
to drive effective action. As different
approaches and business models
are tested, a body of best practice,
adapted to local circumstances and
consumer markets, will eventually
start to emerge. In that respect, the
next two decades promise to be
very exciting indeed.
In Asia Pacific, urbanisation is
taking place faster than anything
ever seen in Europe or North
America, producing massive
mobility challenges. In developing
solutions, cities are likely to grasp
the opportunities of intelligent
mobility at different extents and
speeds. The region already includes
recognised cases such as Hong
Kong, Singapore and Seoul, which
have achieved world class
outcomes in terms of urban mass
transit, transport demand
management and integration
between land use and transport.
Moreover, with high levels of
smartphone take-up, Asia is home
to many current and yet-to-emerge
technology companies and service
providers that will power the new
mobility revolution, support
infrastructure investment and
enable journeys which are
increasingly informed, personalised
and adaptive. To this extent, many
Asian cities and their citizens will
prosper from the new paradigm.
Other cities, crucially many in China
and India, will struggle – especially
those most vulnerable to ecological
degradation and climate change.
This is a result of limited data
processing and communication
technology as well as inadequate
financing and delivery models for
multi-modal infrastructure and
operations. Moreover, inflexible
regulatory frameworks can stifle
innovation and weak institutional
arrangements do little to promote
collaborative behaviours between
public agencies or with the
private sector.
Latterly, it is these policy, legal and
regulatory factors, together with
the absence of strong civic vision
and leadership and system-level
stakeholder collaboration, which
will be as decisive in determining
successful outcomes in the brave
new world of intelligent mobility
as the adoption of any given
technology, infrastructure or
system solution.
Jonathan Spear has more than
20 years’ experience in transport policy,
strategy and institutional advice. He has
worked for Atkins in London, Dubai
and is currently based in Hong Kong.
2.4.2015 | Intelligent mobility
As well as representing the company on
the Council of the European Transport
Association, he has actively supported
the work of two Technical Committees
of the World Road Association, focused
on institutional integrity and multimodal governance.
Andrew Hodgson,
associate director with
Atkins in Asia Pacific
In Asia Pacific, transport choices
often relate to far more complex
considerations than time, cost
and accessibility. Climate also
plays a key role, as do cultural
Across Asia, people are highly
connected, whether sitting in
restaurants posting images of their
meal or watching high definition
TV while sitting on a bus.
Live data is everywhere and people
already rely on it heavily in their
daily lives. Even within economies
under state-enforced restrictions
or coping with rudimentary
infrastructure, innovative ways
are often invented to circumvent
problems. The question for this
region is therefore less about
the availability of data, but more
“Data is the key to MaaS, and
there are few places in the
world where technology
and the ‘internet of things’
are more prevalent than Asia.”
considerations, which influence
how people view modes of
transport, whether it’s the
perceived prestige of car
ownership in many emerging
economies, or religious sensitivities
of men and women travelling
together on public transport.
MaaS is an interesting response
to these issues, and looks to
the private sector to spearhead
a revolution in transportation.
Data is the key to MaaS, and
there are few places in the
world where technology and
the “internet of things” are more
prevalent than Asia. 4G data
connections are common in
underground metro lines and
free wifi is often available in
shopping malls and public districts.
about how it will be embraced
by society and governments alike.
In Hong Kong, for example, the
public transport network is already
incredibly advanced and, alongside
the high cost of car ownership,
this has led to a real estate
premium in being close to mass
transit. Octopus travel cards
allow travel across multiple public
transport modes (train, metro, tram,
ferry), and can just as easily be used
to buy a pint of milk or open the
security gate in your office building.
The line between transport
and society is blurred, where
cheap and accessible public
transport is already approaching
commoditisation. No better
example is the MTR Corporation,
which operates the city’s metro
infrastructure. The majority of
the organisation’s annual profit
(a word not normally associated
with public transport agencies)
comes from property development
associated with their stations.
The question is, how will people
respond to a new approach to
transport? One of the most
important considerations would
be how MaaS could put in place
a service level agreement to a
subscriber, without knowing the
exact journeys they need to take
and when they need them.
This could require extra (and
often redundant) capacity in
the system, although incentives
would go some way in converging
demand and supply on a
continuous basis. Incentives are
already commonplace in advanced
transport systems, such as the
ERP charging tariffs in Singapore,
or the travel card touch-points on
key streets in Hong Kong, which
incentivise walking to the metro.
It is therefore important to research
the potential demand response as
MaaS becomes more sophisticated,
and more importantly to determine
how this differs from region to
region and country to country.
The other angle is, of course, how
governments will respond to a
change in the status quo. An often
cited early entrant to this market is
Uber, which is already operating in
Hong Kong. However, as existing
taxis are ubiquitous and cheap, and
mass transit even more so, early
signs are that this is becoming a
service restricted to less accessible
destinations, or where a more
prestigious journey is sought. So
far there is little sign of a need, or
2.4.2015 | Intelligent mobility
desire for, a greater step change
to develop an integrated public/
private transport system.
offerings and, therefore, in their
likely responses to the provision
of MaaS.
In other Asian countries, the
potential government response
is also unclear. Should MaaS be
met with restrictions rather than
collaboration, it may need to first
develop a critical mass. A number
of cities, for example, already have
a black market of taxi drivers,
recognisable solely by the small red
lights hung from the interior mirror.
While not an image of best practice,
like the innovation shown by users
wishing better communications
access, alternatives will be sought.
On the one hand, cities like
Hong Kong and Singapore
provide affordable, connected
and integrated multi-modal
public transport networks
supported by policy frameworks
that complement low levels of
car reliance and ownership.
The case for MaaS is perhaps
weakened in societies that are
already highly mobile, although
citizens of these cities are certainly
wedded to their smart phones,
and bespoke services such as
Uber have managed to make an
impact and find a particular niche
in Hong Kong. The challenge for
highly regulated Singapore will
be to what extent such systems
will be permitted to operate
autonomously.
But more importantly, should MaaS
be able to demonstrate a social,
financial and environmental benefit,
this may be the missing piece in the
jigsaw that is needed to cut the
regions crippling congestion, tackle
the dangerous levels of smog
experienced in Asian cities on a daily
basis, as well as becoming an
exciting prospect for emerging
economies that rely heavily on
foreign investment to pay for much
needed infrastructure.
Andrew Hodgson has over 14 years’
experience in network planning and
demand forecasting. Previously
managing Atkins’ specialist Pedestrian
Planning business in London and
Transport Planning team in India, and
now from a Hong Kong base he is
leading transport planning advisory
projects, predominately for mass
transit feasibility studies and private
developer investments in Asia Pacific.
Cameron MacDonald,
Associate Director with
Atkins in Asia Pacific
Cities in Asia Pacific vary
considerably in their transport
On the other hand, developing
mega-cities such as Ho Chi Min
City, Bangkok, Jakarta and
numerous others in China,
which are groaning under the
weight of private motorised
transport usage, have already
become victims of “unintelligent
mobility”. While these cities
seek smarter means of mobility,
they have to cope with weak
institutional arrangements and
inflexible regulatory frameworks,
along with a relative lack of
data and processing. These will
challenge the introduction of
MaaS concepts. That said, one
of MaaS’ apparent strengths is
its use of private sector resources
to address these challenges.
Perhaps the biggest challenge
in implementing MaaS in Asia
Pacific is in effecting the transport
network capacity enhancements
implicit in the literature.
Incentivising peak spreading
as a way of making better use
of existing transport infrastructure
is laudable, but cultural
sensitivities around working hours
may hamper the best intentions
of service providers. Also, while
increased sharing of vehicles
may well result in more efficient
means of matching transport
supply and demand, it will not
necessarily limit traffic congestion
in cities where the morning
commuter peak in particular is
rigid and pronounced.
Asia Pacific is tech-savvy and
progressive, providing an ideal
platform for MaaS. With the right
mix of private sector ingenuity,
bespoke regulatory reform as well
as consideration of cultural
sensitivities peculiar to the Region,
MaaS presents as an interesting
approach to addressing the mobility
issues of Asia Pacific’s cities.
Cameron MacDonald has worked
in the region for over 20 years and
witnessed first-hand in that time the
deterioration in life quality in many of
its cities in terms of increasing traffic
congestion, community severance
and environmental degradation.
For more information on
MaaS, you can download a
new white paper, Journeys
of the Future, written by the
UK Transportation’s intelligent
mobility team at Atkins here.
Join the discussion at
angles.atkinsglobal.com
and tell us what you think.