Be mindful with innovations in public transport

Abstract

There is a lot of talk on ‘Smart Mobility’ innovations in public transport (PT): comprehensive fare and ticketing systems including smart cards, route information apps, e-mobility and e-hailing services, Mobility as a Service, etc. Surely, these innovations have value for efficiency of PT operations and better convenience for PT users. Our discussion paper, however, would like to warn against a too swift implementation of such innovations. This has 2 main reasons. Firstly, adaptation of new innovations, systems or services always has a phased take-up by so-called innovators, early adapters, the early and late majority, and laggards. It will take time until everyone is on board. Secondly, many public transport users just don’t have the required supportive facilities to use these innovations: some are not in possession of smartphones (or cannot afford data), have no bank account, or insufficient funds to load a smartcard, etc. This would arguably apply to a large portion of the public transport users, who generally are the lower-income population in townships and rural areas. For them, the ‘traditional’ systems and services – that are proposed to be replaced by innovations – should still exist in parallel for some time. It is advised not to replace a working system with something new overnight, but let multiple systems co-exist. Another lesson to be learned is that the reason for those innovations – generally, making PT travel more convenient – should be implemented in a ‘traditional’ way as well.