{"id":39072,"date":"2021-12-20T13:06:31","date_gmt":"2021-12-20T12:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intellias.com\/?p=39072"},"modified":"2024-06-21T11:08:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T09:08:49","slug":"multimodal-transportation-what-tech-powers-connected-journeys","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/intellias.com\/multimodal-transportation\/","title":{"rendered":"Multimodal Transportation: What Tech Powers Connected Journeys?"},"content":{"rendered":"

How much time do you spend figuring out the transportation system in a new city? Or more precisely, when do you throw in the towel and decide to walk, bike, or hail a taxi instead of using public transport?<\/p>\n

Urban transportation systems<\/a> in big cities appear mazy and hazy for new visitors. But oftentimes, even born-and-bred residents struggle to understand their complexity. Especially when connections between different options are hard to figure out. Subsequently, more cars crowd the streets, while already subsidized public transportation grows less profitable to operate.<\/p>\n

Now the bigger question is this: What would it take to create seamless multimodal transit? An experience so good and effective that people favor public transport over private cars. We have some ideas on how to achieve this.<\/p>\n

What is multimodal transportation?<\/h2>\n

Multimodal transportation assumes using two or more transportation modes to move people or goods from door to door. A multimodal transportation system can coordinate either urban mobility \u2014 the smart movement of people using private and public modes of transport \u2014 or commercial logistics \u2014 the movement of freight and cargo using different modalities.<\/p>\n

A better way: Connected, door-to-door journeys<\/b>\"Multimodal<\/p>\n

Source: Visa \u2014 Transforming Urban Mobility<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Why better multimodal planning is needed<\/p>\n

As Mattafix once sang<\/a> about Big City Life: \u201cPressure nah ease up no matter how hard me try.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the song is from the early 2000s, urban planners in major cities can still relate to it. Despite continuous effort, heavy traffic, pollution, and crowding in public transport remain stress-inducing issues for local authorities.<\/p>\n

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Unless transformations happen, an average urban dweller will spend 106 hours per year in traffic jams by 2050 \u2014 three times more than today.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/span> ADL Global<\/span><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/small>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\t\t<\/section>\n

The above is the worst-case scenario. There is some better news too. Cities around the world have already made tremendous progress in improving the quality, availability, and efficiency of urban transport.<\/p>\n

The same ADL Global study<\/a> rates most of the world\u2019s 50 largest cities as having achieved two-thirds the level of urban transportation performance that could potentially be reached today. The global leaders are Hong Kong and Amsterdam.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s needed to go the rest of the way? Cities need to devise and implement a better multimodal transportation plan.<\/p>\n

A multimodal transit plan is one that takes various modes of transport into consideration (walking, cycling, public transit, cars, etc.) and builds convenient connections between them.<\/p>\n

Creating such a continuous flow allows planners to redistribute passengers across different nodes, leading to:<\/p>\n