Deloitte City Mobility Index

Where should cities go tomorrow?

To map the user needs, platform operators can rely on databases to provide a more accurate picture in a much shorter time frame at a lower cost. Business leaders can leverage a vast array of data from the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and other digital technologies to develop and inform intelligent decisions about people, places, and products. 

Given the essential enabling role transportation plays in a city’s sustained economic prosperity, we created the Deloitte City Mobility Index (DCMI) to help city officials create a new and better way to gauge the health of their mobility network and their readiness to embrace the future. The DCMI places economic prosperity at its core, takes a holistic view of the city’s entire mobility landscape, and it is informed by our clear image of how the future of mobility could unfold in urban areas.

City mobility performance

Three key themes in the DCMI measure the urban mobility performance:

1. Performance and resilience
   Urban mobility should be efficient. It’s a given that the trains should literally run on time. But cities that scored highest in this category also minimize congestion and travel times, maintain roads and other infrastructure, and offer multiple, integrated modes of transportation.
2. Vision and leadership
   Urban mobility requires innovation, coordination among stakeholders, and direction. Creating a high-performing, resilient, and inclusive mobility system is unlikely to happen by accident. This second theme analyzes how deliberate and forward-thinking a city’s leaders are regarding its future mobility needs.
3. Service and inclusion
   Urban mobility should be accessible to all residents. Exemplary cities in this category offer widespread coverage and modest wait times for public transit, affordable options, and user-friendly ways to access a variety of transportation modes.

Amsterdam as a testing ground for a variety of smart mobility solutions

Amsterdam’s proactive governance model makes it a testing ground for a variety of smart mobility solutions. The authorities have moved quickly to install an EV charging infrastructure in line with demand, to introduce electric buses, and
to promote public transport and shared mobility in the city centre. Additionally,
the completion of the new Noord-Zuid metro line – one year ago – improved the public transport service significantly.

Depending on whether COVID-19 results in a long-term shift towards private cars, additional measures are required to keep the city moving. These include
incentives to avoid travelling during peak times. This can be done through more
collaboration among corporates, educational institutes and the government.
Furthermore, the development of a more advanced digital transport operating
system to enable nudging and dynamic pricing also need to be considered. Last
but not least, the public transportation backbone is to be expanded and
complemented by multi-modal mobility hubs. Combined with a dedicated
transport-oriented real estate development this should provide for a better
alternative for private car ownership. 

What can cities learn?

Given the speed of change and technological trends, there’s an opportunity to
radically remake a city’s mobility landscape over the course of the next five
or ten years. Our findings suggest that more than any other indicator, having
low levels of integration is correlated with low readiness to face the future of
mobility. Creating seamless urban transportation demands a unity of purpose and an ability to act in concert across different modes and jurisdictions. 

Our vision for smart urban mobility emphasizes active transportation and public
transit. That necessarily means any city that relies heavily on private cars
will fare poorly on several metrics in the index. Creating convenient and
affordable solutions for the beginning and end of a journey—think
bicycle-sharing, dynamic shuttles, and ride-hailing, ideally integrated via a
full-fledged mobility-as-a-service offering—can be an important step to
reducing reliance on personally owned vehicles. Although the long-term impact
of COVID-19 is hard to predict, early signs suggest a shift towards car
ownership. This makes it ever more important to provide citizens with good
transport alternatives, ranging from shared modes of (micro-)mobility to safe
public transport services.

Future of Mobility interactive magazine

The future of mobility will impact us all. Discover how the expanding mobility ecosystem will impact your business. We combined all our insights in our Future of Mobility interactive magazine. Or read more on www.deloitte.nl/futureofmobility.

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