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Digitalisation and Frontier Technologies in Urban Mobility

The future of urban mobility


Our cities matter. They are centres of bustling activity, opportunity and culture with people, goods and services being constantly on the move. A huge proportion of any country’s economic growth is strongly linked to the city, which hosts business districts, schools, places of employment, recreation, and innovation hubs just to mention a few. Cities create a conducive environment for creativity, productivity and innovation. It is no surprise that some of the greatest technological creations today happen in the city. 

 As cities and their populations grow, so do the set of urban mobility challenges ranging from but not limited to congested roads, declining air quality, loss of economic opportunities, traffic flow inefficiencies, inadequate public transportation systems, poor fuel economy, energy inefficiency and insufficient data to address these challenges. It is estimated that 60 percent of the world’s population will reside in cities by the year 2030, a situation that is likely to further complicate these challenges if urgent interventions are not put in place. What role is technology playing in addressing current and future urban mobility issues?

Digitization and Frontier Technologies

Technological advancement and innovation over the last couple of years have provided city stakeholders globally with a wide range of possibilities for sustainable urban planning and development giving rise to concepts of smart cities and the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’. As the world continues to integrate these concepts in the implementation of global development commitments such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the New Urban Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement, the realization of more sustainable cities edges closer. 

 Digitization or the use of digital technologies in urban mobility and other sectors is one of the most notable disruptive trends of our century. Digitization is transforming data, information and processes into computerized forms. One of the most visible examples of digitization in our society is the rapid uptake of mobile phones, the internet and the internet of things. In the mobility sector, digitization is already impacting how goods and people move. 


‘Big Data’ in digitization of urban mobility is key as it enables analysis of complex traffic flows, reveals patterns and offers the opportunity to predict future trends. Mass transit systems, for instance, greatly benefit from digitization as operators are able to predict traffic volumes at peak and off-peak hours thereby scheduling trips along various routes based on available traffic data. Other good examples are ride-hailing and ride-sharing applications which use end-to-end technology to provide near seamless connectivity between drivers and their customers. 

 Combining digitization with best practice approaches such as the A-S-I (Avoid-Shift-Improve), there is great potential to:


 It is acknowledged that the pace of urban mobility transformation in various countries will vary based on their unique context. However, the future of urban mobility is undoubtedly digital. 

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