Activating a Seamless Integrated Mobility System (SIMSystem)

Strategic choices to advance the urban mobility agenda

Since 2017, we have worked with the Forum to define the principles for a seamless integrated mobility system and to explore its application in cities around the world. Our latest study, released at the World Economic Forum's 50th Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters in January 2020, delves into the journey that 10 leading cities/regions are taking to address vexing mobility challenges and share how they are making measurable progress in advancing the seamless connection of different modes of transport to improve overall system efficiency and enable more optimized and accessible movement for people and goods.

Mobility is a priority for cities as they seek to move greater numbers of people and volumes of goods. Driven by population growth, urbanization and constrained capital investment for infrastructure upgrades and transportation modernization, cities are grappling with congestion, air pollution, accessibility and affordability. A proliferation of new transportation technologies and services, from ride-hailing and trip planning to micro-mobility and micro-transit and beyond, are beginning to help tackle some of these urban mobility challenges. However, they are often narrowly focused on a single mode or a single journey, and operate on independent networks. Addressing system-wide challenges in urban transportation requires a seamless integrated mobility system to coordinate the integration of disparate modes and better orchestrate the mobility landscape's complex web of stakeholders.

A fully functioning SIMSystem enables cities to move people and goods more efficiently by creating interoperability across physical assets such as cars and buses; digital technologies like dynamic pricing and shared data exchanges; and the governance structures, standards, and rules by which they operate.
However, the journey to seamless integrated mobility is fraught with numerous questions and challenges. Our research offers insights from how 10 cities have wrestled with several key design choices:

• The role of digital platforms in systemwide optimization versus individual journey optimization
• The balance of leadership required across the public and private sector
• The role of data and need for openness and transparency while balancing security and privacy needs
• The implications on how to balance the need for regulation with the pace of innovation being brought forth by mobility service providers

We hope these insights help your city accelerate progress in establishing an impactful SIMSystem. Please contact us if you would like to discuss its applicability to your community.

Read the full report Activating a Seamless Integrated Mobility System.