A Vision for Sustainable Public Transport

Director

Jan. 20, 2015

One of the biggest challenges city planners face is integrating public transport better to enhance resilience and sustainability. Except created a vision to address this in collaboration with public transport stakeholders and experts from Rotterdam. The concept came into being through several intense working sessions and is now used to engage new stakeholders and move the agenda toward the world's most sustainable public transport system in the world.

What's in store and critical trends

Our city landscapes are changing rapidly. Demographics are shifting, new technologies and lifestyles meet resource and management challenges. We see 13 major social trends that directly influence transport systems. These are outlined in the downloadable report below.

"Self-driving buses, ever-increasing flex workers, and rapid changes in rainfall and climate are just a few developments facing our rigid and inflexible public transport system. It's rigid because of strict concession and tender regulations that leave little space for adaptation and innovation.
However, the public transport systems could be a key to economic and resilient development. For these reasons alone, the public transport system is a pivot point for sustainable development. That's what this is about. What do we need to change, what critical trends play a role, and how do we take first steps towards actionable results?"

Hugo de Bruin

City Region of Rotterdam

A new approach

We have to make decisions about our public transport systems that will affect our cities 30 years into the future. Right now we're not meeting our challenges, and to do so, we need a new approach that considers effects beyond the systems we work on, which is more effective in the long run. How do we do this? The vision sets out an example of a trajectory of a step-by-step adaptive roadmap, in which economic, ecologic, social, and physical interventions combine to create a more significant positive effect.

Action plan

Now we need action. We've put the first dot on the horizon with this vision, and now it's time to engage all stakeholders and challenge them to contribute or take a position. In the next phase of this project, we'll be doing just that, guiding the process to what we believe can be the most sustainable public transport system in the world.

by Tom Bosschaert

Director

Jan. 20, 2015