New Metropolis Love
Reading time approx.10 Min. New Metropolis LovePeople's relationship to their cities has become more and more toxic over the past 50 years. One of the major causes: constantly increasing vehicle traffic. But finally the trend is reversing. New mobility technologies are smoothing the path to more sharing and sustainability and away from individual trips in private exhaust emitters. This is changing the face of large cities: They're becoming more livable and more lovable again.
In Barcelona, they stopped dithering and knuckled down. They blocked and rebuilt entire streets, lined up pots of greenery like avenues, planted lawns, laid out bike paths and playgrounds, set up benches and tables — and diverted through traffic around the new “superblocks”. Residents and delivery vehicles now slink around the corner at 10 km/h. What were once heavily trafficked areas have become sought-after places to meet: quiet, green, safe, social and lively. Profits have grown at cafés and shops, and tenant turnover is decreasing.
“When we put cars in their place,” says Janet Sanz, 37, Barcelona's mayor for ecology, city planning and mobility, “we gain better health and quality of life.”
Meanwhile, Barcelona's model has inspired many of the world's cities, because it stands for a new, continuously trail-blazing urban trend: Mobility isn’t just defined by cars — many other ways are being tried.Soon sharing options will be on every big-city corner,and streets are giving away space for bike paths and green strips.
Amsterdam and Copenhagen have become the world's bicycle capitals, and Paris has declared itself a 30 km/h zone. Oslo is developing itself into Europe's electricity capital and is following Shenzhen's example: In China’s digital model city, an entire fleet of 16,000 city buses and 22,000 taxis already run on electricity. Even robo-taxis and small autonomous buses are being used from San Francisco to Singapore, and will be on Munich's roads in 2022. And those are just a few examples.
The reawakening of cities
The reawakening of citiesProfessor Andreas Knie heads the digital mobility research group at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin (Berlin Science Center). He says he was seeing a shift in consciousness even before the COVID pandemic.
For Knie, there is no doubt:Since the 1950s, cities have focused a great deal on vehicular traffic, and gave up far too much space that's just being parked on. But that’s changing now.“It became clear to everybody that the idea of private cars, which spend 90 percent of their time standing around, cannot be our future. The gas-guzzler concept will visibly disappear from our large cities.” More and more cities will get on the path of making car usage more efficient — more use but less ownership.
In fact, according to various studies, use of private passenger cars is decreasing in Europe's metropolises — and mobility through collaborative offerings, such as car, ride and bike sharing, with buses, trains, electric cars, bikes and scooters is measurably increasing. Future Mobility expert, partner and co-author of the MHP Mobility.OS study, Marcus Willand, comes to the same conclusion:“The proportion of motorized individual transport is falling, as our meta-analyzes show:by 2030 this will decline from 81% worldwide to 61%. The proportion of shared mobility increases accordingly ”
“With our supposed affinity toward cars, we're still missing the boat.” A city-state like autocratic Singapore decided a long time ago to minimize individual traffic and bet on decked-out, economical subways and buses. “Anyone there who wants to drive his own car has to pay a hell of a lot for his license,” says Knie. Even in American metropolises like New York, Chicago, Austin and Los Angeles, private cars are a discontinued model. City highways would be dismantled in favor of new residential areas and parks. “A city is livable,” says legendary Copenhagen architect and city planner Jan Gehl, “if it respects human dimensions and no longer moves to the beat of the automobile.”
Drivers of mobility trends
Drivers of mobility trendsWhen one speaks to traffic experts, city planners and futurists, five megatrends are driving the change in urban mobility:
The COVID pandemic has shown many people that they can organize their everyday professional and home lives differently from before. Work from home and online conferences replace a lot of trips.
Climate protection has arrived in politics and industry: Europe and the United States want to become climate neutral by 2050, and by the mid-2030s, car companies won't be building internal combustion engines anymore.
A rural exodus is driving growth in the cities. According to estimates by the United Nations, over half of the world's more than 8 billion people live in urban areas today. By 2050, the portion could reach almost 70 percent. Status, traffic collapse and emissions are stressing people — while cities have to use better quality of life to compete for the best brains.
New technologies are making quantum leaps: Digital options such as KI, Blockchain and 5G are now making ever more sharing models, autonomous driving, networking and smart mobility possible for the first time.
The meaning of cars for personal happiness and professional success is dwindling: Growing segments of the city populace — and not just millennials — are doing without a car, or at least a second car. Mobility budgets are replacing company cars.
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The COVID pandemic has shown many people that they can organize their everyday professional and home lives differently from before. Work from home and online conferences replace a lot of trips.
Climate protection has arrived in politics and industry: Europe and the United States want to become climate neutral by 2050, and by the mid-2030s, car companies won't be building internal combustion engines anymore.
A rural exodus is driving growth in the cities. According to estimates by the United Nations, over half of the world's more than 8 billion people live in urban areas today. By 2050, the portion could reach almost 70 percent. Status, traffic collapse and emissions are stressing people — while cities have to use better quality of life to compete for the best brains.
New technologies are making quantum leaps: Digital options such as KI, Blockchain and 5G are now making ever more sharing models, autonomous driving, networking and smart mobility possible for the first time.
The meaning of cars for personal happiness and professional success is dwindling: Growing segments of the city populace — and not just millennials — are doing without a car, or at least a second car. Mobility budgets are replacing company cars.
New courage for new paths
New courage for new pathsGermany is still waiting for the breakthrough. In Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart and Munich there is a dense swarm of new shared ride opportunities, but it is still hard for commuters and planners to part with their own internal-combustion cars. “Technically, a lot is possible right now,” says Thomas Schaefer, a mobility expert at MHP. “However, it is crucial to create added value for people and motivate behavioral changes more.”
Senior Manager Schaefer was CIO of Deutsche Bahn Connect and now advises cities and transportation companies on their path to greater urban quality of life. In his conversations with local authorities, he calls for taking courageous paths and to follow the example of Europe's metropolises. Around Luxembourg, for example, which is groaning under a massive stream of commuters, park-and-ride places and mobility hubs for switching transport modes have arisen since the country has massively expanded public transport: A tramway was built from scratch, electric buses introduced, and bus, train and tram rides are free within the country — for residents and cross-border commuters and tourists.
And the change continues. After autonomous robo-taxis, sharing vehicles are planned that the customer can summon through an app.They make private cars superfluous and don't need to park in the city.In addition, more autonomous shuttle buses are serving all over the world – cost-efficiently, flexibly and without fixed routes. Just the French company EasyMile has launched driverless shuttle services at more than 300 sites around the world. With on-demand commuting and ride pooling, they are also a new opportunity for connecting rural regions. According to the smart city study by the industry association Bitkom, in 2020 every fourth major German city tested pilot projects with autonomous electric shuttles.
Moreover, every second large city has tested intelligent traffic lights that react to the stream of traffic and intelligent street lights that provide sensors, WLAN and sockets for e-cars. A third of the large cities are introducing smart parking, with which an app navigates to the nearest free parking space — if parking spaces are even needed. Simulations show that a fleet of autonomous-driving robo-taxis requires only a tenth as many vehicles as are used currently. “The exciting question,” says Daniel Krajzewicz, head of the mobility and urban planning department at the Institute for Traffic Research at the German Aerospace Center, “is how many people will really give up their car, who can afford the offering, and whether they’ll ride autonomous vehicles — precisely because it’s so much more convenient.”
The service provider ecosystem
The service provider ecosystemBusiness psychologist Sophia Rödiger was a transformation expert at Daimler Mobility, and this year has founded the mobility-focused tech startup bloXmove. Rödiger says: “Crucial for the move from cars is that we offer seamless simplicity in booking and using the new mobility. They have to make it easy for people to give up their cars.”
BloXmove offers decentralized blockchain technology that connects a wide range of mobility providers, from small scooters to the railroad, through a plug-in into the ecosystem. Because all providers, including ID verification and e-payment, are linked into the background infrastructure, the partners can offer fully integrated end-to-end trips — with their app and one ticket. Pilot partners in the new network include 50Hertz and other famous companies. “Eventually, mobility will also be networked to the specific city — to movie theaters, restaurants, museums and energy providers,” says Rödiger. “The mobile and the stationary will grow ever more together — cities will become more networked, moving organisms.Willand agrees: “Mobile customers want networked, intermodal mobility offers that can be reached via standardized, digital access. Store your own data and payment options only once, which all providers then use for processing - that is the unmistakable wish that can only be realized through cross-sector cooperation ".
Most decisive:The more vehicle traffic recedes, the more air traffic-choked cities will have for breathing.Car lanes give way to bike lanes and foot paths. Bus stops become a gateway to the smart mobility network. Filling stations make room for charging parks and mobility hubs at which cargo bikes and electric cars can be rented. Parking space requirements are being abolished and multi-story garages converted to apartments.
In the future, flying taxis may land and take off from their roofs. Ehang from China and Volocopter from Germany are testing the first practical models. Volocopter wants to be in use for the 2024 summer Olympic Games in Paris.
More freedom to live
More freedom to liveExamples of recultivation can be seen in old harbors, like Rotterdam's Katendrecht quarter, Copenhagen's Nordhaven, Antwerp's Schipperskwartier, Hamburg's Hafencity and Bremen's Überseestadt. “Where globalization once showed its dark side, cafés, bars and restaurants are now appearing — and lots of room for people.” This can be seen on a large scale in Berlin's Tempelhofer Feld: Where airplanes once took off and landed, one of the world's largest urban open spaces has arisen. And Berliners love to play there.
Knie expects cities to reinvent themselves.“We will organize life, work and pleasure more compactly. We will experience a new pop-up culture, create arrangements for temporary bike paths, pedestrian zones and beer gardens, and make them permanent if they succeed.” Behind this is the vision of the 15-minute city, in which everything necessary can be reached on foot or bike within a quarter hour. “Cities will change,” says Knie, “as they always have.”
Outro
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Sven Heitkamp
Sven Heitkamp is a freelance reporter and copywriter from Leipzig. He discovers what innovations startups are working on and explores how large corporations work. He researches societal trends and family histories.
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New Metropolis Love
“When we put cars in their place,” says Janet Sanz, 37, Barcelona's mayor for ecology, city planning and mobility, “we gain better health and quality of life.”
Soon sharing options will be on every big-city corner,
The reawakening of cities
Since the 1950s, cities have focused a great deal on vehicular traffic, and gave up far too much space that's just being parked on. But that’s changing now.
“The proportion of motorized individual transport is falling, as our meta-analyzes show:
Drivers of mobility trends
Drivers of mobility trends
New courage for new paths
They make private cars superfluous and don't need to park in the city.
The service provider ecosystem
The more vehicle traffic recedes, the more air traffic-choked cities will have for breathing.
More freedom to live
“We will organize life, work and pleasure more compactly. We will experience a new pop-up culture, create arrangements for temporary bike paths, pedestrian zones and beer gardens, and make them permanent if they succeed.”
Discover more:
