London Reconnections continues its New York podcast series with an episode looking at the challenges and changes brought about by emerging urban mobility providers.

Zak Accuardi is a program analyst atTransitCenter, a foundation focusing on data and technology research projects. He is the lead researcher and a co-author of the report Private Mobility – Public Interest which builds on over one hundred interviews with representatives from the public and private sectors across the United States. It discusses how emerging mobility services such as bike-share, car-share, and on-demand transit might be harnessed or integrated into a city’s transport network. One clear finding of the report is that the research did not support the superficial narrative that emerging mobility providers are set to replace fixed route public transport services.

Greg Lindsay is a Senior Fellow at the New Cities Foundation. He is the author of Now Arriving: A Connected Mobility Roadmap for Public Transport which investigates the challenge presented to cities by on-demand mobility providers harnessing the ability to locate, coordinate and orchestrate passengers and vehicles via individual’s smart phones. The report builds on mobility research on four case study cities: Washington DC, London, Sao Paulo and Manila. The report offers transport authorities recommendations on how to halt the downward spiral of shrinking budgets and declining ridership as the popularity of on-demand mobility providers grows.  

We talk about how cities might react and how regulation might evolve to embrace the new mobility options. How are these new actors disrupting transport provision in cities? What can cities do in the short, medium and long term to avoid transport inequality and ensure good mobility for all? Can cities stand their ground against powerful private mobility providers?

For more frequent updates on the topic you can follow our guests and their organisations on twitter at @zaccuradi from @TransitCenter and @Greg_Lindsay from @NewCitiesFoundation.