With urban travel needs growing faster than the development of transport infrastructure, the car as preferred personal transport solution is no longer sustainable.

As towns and cities grow, it has become increasingly clear that a reliance on the car as the primary mode of transportation is no longer tenable. Only a combination of different modes of transportation will address future needs, says Anil Valsan.

To determine the possibility of developing commercially viable integrated mobility solutions, we have developed an ecosystem of three components:

• mobility services for end-users
• infrastructure that enables integration
• stakeholders that deliver these services

The infrastructure and technologies are available today in certain markets, and early entrants have begun to illustrate the benefits of integrating mobility. Our view is that this is where the real value lies.

Enabling integration

We have identified five mobility business strategy variants, based on the services they deliver to the customer:

• Transport navigator — a provider of online transport information portals
• Mobility platform manager — a developer of mobility management interfaces and applications
• On-demand personal mobility provider — a deliverer of personalized and shared transport solutions, such as car and other vehicle sharing
• Multi modal public transporter — a facilitator or operator of integrated multi modal public transport networks
• Mobility integrator — a catalyst for end-to-end journey solutions combining public and private transport modes
  

Consumer spending — who takes the share?

Considering the potential shift in the demand for mobility from owning vehicles to having access to various transport alternatives, the main questions would be:

• Who “owns” the customer?
• What share of the consumer’s wallet can they capture?

While the answer probably lies somewhere between a mobility integrator and the public transporter, the market is still at a nascent stage. There is still a window of opportunity for the auto industry and other stakeholders to come up with new ways to compete.

Integrating disparate transport modes to offer a viable door-to-door mobility solution can also help transportation become an economic contributor rather than a cost. At the same time, it can enable extensive use of clean technologies, such as electric vehicles.

While such integration is initially only possible at a city level, this is a significant opportunity for local administrators to improve the standard of living and make them attractive destinations for investments.

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