What does mobility in the future actually look like? How will our cities develop? What will happen to transportation? These are the questions we wanted to pursue and interview experts about. The journey will take us to the state of Georgia, all over Europe and to South America. Our project includes articles focusing on Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, England, the USA and even Brazil. There are interviews with people who are working on vehicles of the future, and articles that deal with the question of how we must rethink transportation as a society so that the world of tomorrow does not sink into chaos.
One thing is clear: the mobility of the future will look different than it does today. The private car will be phased out, as car sharing points the way to a new form of mobility. And if society understands the sharing model as normal it could even lead to a stronger sense of togetherness.
Much of this sharing economy already exists on a small scale. This not only lowers costs, but also ensures that resources are conserved, and materials are better utilized.
”In the future, people will buy access to mobility products rather than owning them,” Christian Rauch of Germany’s International Society for Future and Trend Consulting said in an interview with the newspaper Die Welt.
If there are new forms of transportation, the space in which they move must also change. To what extent did visionaries like Jules Verne predict what is now considered realistic urban development, and how has the perception changed of what is possible?
The fact is more and more cities around the world are banning or restricting gasoline-powered vehicles from driving in their city centers, including Brussels and Paris. The aim is to reduce air pollution and combat climate change. The city of the future will not be car-friendly, but rather focus on a public transportation system that could even be elevated above buildings. According to estimates from the United Nations, by 2025 there will be 27 megacities around the world, each with more than 10 million inhabitants. So more environmentally friendly transportation solutions are badly needed.
So what will transportation look like for our commutes of the future? According to Stephan Rammler, the scientific director of the IZT – Institute for Future Studies and Technology Assessment in Germany, the transportation of the future lies in Asia. Mobility as a service, and especially ride-sharing will be the focus of this new urban mobility.
