Mobility concepts

Present situation worldwide and in Switzerland

When it comes to the development of new mobility concepts, the megatrend is the automation of road and rail vehicles. For road vehicles, automation is likely to be gradual, from today’s partial automation to full automation after 2030. As for rail vehicles, major efforts are currently being undertaken to significantly increase capacities using digital technologies. Another strong trend is the development of new solutions based on existing vehicle technologies. In most cases, these are designed to solve “last mile” issues by replacing individually owned vehicles or complementing public transportation. Research is being carried out to develop new on-demand solutions using fully automated road vehicles. A third trend is to combine all mobility solutions into one continuous, multi-link chain providing easy-to-use door-to-door transportation services. It is interesting to note that service providers external to the field of mobility are trying to complement their product range with mobility solutions: such developments are driven mainly by sector-specific goals, giving only limited consideration to the potential of multimodal mobility.

Implications for Switzerland

Two challenges can currently be identified in the field of mobility: first, the way in which we use mobility will change significantly. Second, the strict boundaries between mobility options, e.g. individual and public transportation, will blur. It remains to be seen which requirements this will give rise to in terms of infrastructures and spatial planning. The availability of mobility data is a key issue in this context. Unlike public transportation, individual transportation data is highly decentralised, often privatised and not accessible to third parties. However, a reasonable combination of data sources is indispensable in order to develop and steer future mobility as well as provide intelligent solutions to issues of capacity.