Living in the City of 2050

How urban mobility and urban development will go hand in hand? 

Cities are often the starting point when we think about the future of mobility. Cities are where population density is high, where congestion and pollution are greatest, and where solutions like high-quality public transportation will have the biggest impact because so many people need to move around daily.

"Over 70 percent of the world’s population lives in cities”, Zeina Nazer, co-founder of Cities
Forum, told The Mobility Times in Amsterdam during the Mobility Sphere’s first forum. “By helping cities, we are helping the majority of the world”.

The desire to re-invent the modern city for the benefit of all is shared by several experts at the Amsterdam meeting, with Elke Van den Brandt, Brussels government minister in charge of mobility, saying: “For me, mobility is never a goal. It’s just the instrument I’m using to offer more quality of life to the people in Brussels.”

Madeleine Masse, an architect with much experience in redesigning public spaces in Paris, said that “we must integrate all these notions of inter-modality, of connections, and move towards a different model. The urban space needs to be given back to its inhabitants. We are building cycling paths and bus lanes and we mustn’t forget pedestrians, because our cities are not often very walkable.”

Mass transit, she said, has to be a priority, especially for those who travel longer distances. “We have to make room for surrounding infrastructure, for train stations, tram stations and bus stations so we can move the largest possible number of people from one place to another.”

Experts agree that car use will have to diminish and public transport rise if cities are to become more liveable.

“Most cities have been trying to reallocate space in order to shift away from the dominant role of cars towards other types of mobility”, Charlotte Halpern, researcher at Sciences Po’s Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, told the Mobility Times. This, in turn, will also create opportunities to use space differently, said Van den Brandt. “Cars take up about 70 percent of public space in Brussels, either through car lanes or parking. If we can get a little bit of that space back, we can build terraces for the cafes, we can build playgrounds, cycle lanes and bus lanes. We can do so much".

Nazer added: “It is very important to have an attachment to where you live. If you love your city, you will take care of it. It becomes your home.” To incite car owners to switch to more sustainable forms of transport, cities must offer them clean, reliable and safe public transport that runs frequently, experts said. The expectation is that once a credible alternative is offered, they will be more likely to make the change. Nazer said public policies should incite them to do so. “I would want to make it more difficult for people to choose their personal vehicle if public transport is available. So training and educating the public are very important.”