A systems design perspective of mobility ecosystem innovation: what is our solution?
Last week, we wrote about Uber’s expansion throughout Belgium; how they provide valuable and necessary services to people despite the negative backlash they’ve received as a disruptor. In the article, we noted that Uber has the potential to play a part in the larger mobility ecosystem and to help resolve mobility issues cities are currently facing. This made us think: despite all the current mobility ecosystem innovations, we are still faced with mobility issues… Surely, we weren’t the only ones who noticed how quiet the roads were when everyone had to stay inside during the first lockdowns of 2020 — and how quickly that changed once measures were loosened.
What has gone wrong?
This article will use a systems design perspective to analyse how interconnectedness is the biggest issue with current mobility ecosystem innovation and offer a solution.
What is systems design?
First of all: what is systems design? Systems design is the application of systems thinking within the field of design. Systems thinking is more than a methodology — it’s a philosophy that approaches structures as a collection of interconnected, interrelated, and even interdependent components. In essence, it approaches life as if everything is connected and influences each other. Change one radar in the system and everything will change. A pop culture example of systems thinking is the butterfly effect. For designers, systems thinking offers a very valuable perspective on designing products, services and experiences. By applying the principles of systems thinking within a design methodology (hence systems design), it can enhance the overall result of a product threefold: it improves desirability, feasibility, and viability.
The issue of interconnectedness
As mentioned above, the biggest issue in the mobility ecosystem innovation is a lack of interconnectedness. There are different services in the mobility ecosystem: public, private-public, private, and shared transportation. And within these services, there are different means of mobility: trains, buses, trams, cars, bikes, scooters, etc. There are also different organised methods, from private carpooling to publicly accessible transportation.
The result: over a dozen companies, each offering their own solution to solve a piece of the transportation and mobility problem. As new companies pop up to solve one issue, new problems are created, which actually makes things worse in the process.
The number of cars has increased due to the escalating number of car-sharing initiatives. Street corners are now home to a bunch of e-scooters, with each corner representing a different brand. In-between these corners you’ll likely find another competitor’s scooters, and if you jump over those, you might finally get to the public bikes. Walking around the neighbourhood has surely become quite an adventure, but that’s about it.
In the meantime, cities and public authorities are changing streets to make more space for public transportation. These initiatives attract few people because there are other alternatives to taking buses and trams, which are often either too late or too fully packed. This means less space and more vehicles — not quite how mobility ecosystem innovation is intended to work.
Another factor is that it is super expensive. All these providers want to lock you into their services. They do this by increasing their default price and then offering packages with credits at a discount. The larger the package, the better the discount. In order to keep things affordable, you’ll have to spend…
Finally, the whole ecosystem fails to replace people’s cars because of a lack of interconnectedness. These services are an alternative to using your car rather than an alternative to owning a car.
The solution from a systems design perspective
Let’s empathise first
Let’s approach the issue from a parents’ perspective. Why parents? Because parents move around. A lot. Many parents commute long distances to their workplace, do groceries, pick up children from school and bring them to sports practices, art classes, you name it. And how do they do that right now? Indeed, by car. If you eyeballed who mobility innovation could make the biggest difference for, it would be parents.
To replace a car, the alternative needs to be effortless. A lot of parents’ movements throughout the day have little margin. This is easy if you move around with a car since you can jump into it and move you from point A to B at your convenience. But when using alternative transportation, a bigger margin needs to be taken into account. Trains don’t come and go as you wish, so you need to check schedules and plan your timing.
That’s still easy enough. But as a parent, there is more to consider than just transportation. Parents often need to transport something with them: groceries, children, bags of stuff, etc. Sometimes they can use substitute forms of transportation, other times not. Furthermore, children need safety chairs for certain types of transportation and there’s no way parents can drag around such a bulky item around all day long.
So, what does their user experience look like? Parents have to sign up to a dozen different providers in advance. They have to go through the set-up, acceptation procedure (yes, we still need to check if you’re actually allowed to drive a car), apply for subscriptions (trains, buses, trams), activate their credit card (if you have one, otherwise you’re screwed) or even buy some credits. Then they have to check all the apps to see what’s available where, only to discover that someone else took the last scooter 100 meters before they reached it and now have to walk 1 km to the next best thing.
Now you’ve gained a different point of view, what can we do?
First, we can start by connecting all these services into a shared and coherent platform. This platform can be organised in several ways, but it should be open and holistic. This means that both private and public companies should be included in it.
Second, these services should be aligned with each other. This requires some clever technology, but with machine learning and predictive analytics, we can go a long way in removing the clutter of all these vehicles from our streets. Especially if it is integrated with underground parking possibilities, GPS functionalities and other services (managing incoming requests for the same vehicle). This would significantly reduce the amount of public space that is currently or will potentially be occupied unnecessarily.
Third, shared private and public transportation should be equal. There shouldn’t be any benefits that prioritise one party over another. This doesn’t only apply to subsidies and tax benefits, but infrastructure too. Currently, public transportation uses public facilities that are only available and accessible to them. This should be changed so that shared cars can take the bus lane along with car-poolers and taxis. There should be subsidies for underground parking spaces reserved for shared vehicles (not only cars). And safety infrastructures such as bike installations should be available to everyone regardless. From a tax point of view, benefits should be awarded to the overall use of the platform rather than a specific kind of transportation since all transportation on the platform aims to improve mobility.
Fourth, payments should be easy. The platform shouldn’t rely only on credit cards but include other types of payment. In a lot of countries, public transportation is subsidised by employers through third-party payment arrangements. This should be included as well. After all, the final amount that needs to be paid by the user is subsidies, tax benefits, etc. Direct results!
Fifth, not every means of transport has the same purpose, so transportation should aim to align with these purposes. For example: people without cars require transportation for reasons beyond simply getting from point A to B. They may need transportation (hired vans) that allows them to easily move bulky items and shopping, such as furniture. However, people who own a car would probably prefer to take such items away with them instead of hiring another vehicle. An option here is to develop an Uber style delivery service that picks up and drops off goods directly to homes. On a side note, the platform could also invest in eco-friendly vehicles since a lot of these vans tend to be polluters.
Sixth, no two people are the same and neither is each use case. Parents definitely have different needs compared to singles and youths. The platform should be designed to align each use case with the correct and necessary benefits. For example, cars with child seats in them should remain available for customers that need to transport children. This can easily be accomplished by combining a good UX with artificial intelligence to learn where to distribute the different use cases across the city.
Last, it’s an illusion to think that those who use alternative transportation don’t also possess their own means of transportation. This is not necessarily a car, but can be a scooter or a bike. The platform should motivate and reward people for using these. For example, people who choose their bikes over a car or bus as a means of transport could receive small rewards. Or car owners could receive benefits from the platform if they leave their car at home more often, when they put their car at the disposal of others, or when they mainly use their car for the carpooling features in the platform.
To wrap up
Our current mobility ecosystem innovation has failed to solve mobility issues in cities due to its lack of interconnectedness, and isn’t much of an ecosystem at all. The rise of multiple separate but similar service providers has increased the number of vehicles occupying the streets, whether those are car-shares, rental scooters and bikes, or public buses. It’s also increased the complexity and cost of transportation, which isn’t quite how mobility ecosystem innovation is intended to work. The theoretical interconnected and shared mobility platform we’ve outlined in this article analyses some of these issues from a systems design perspective to consider how things could be done differently and what that could look like. Imagine an equal, holistic and interconnected platform that offers a variety of transportation means for different use cases. Imagine breaking down the wall between private and public so that users can make the best of both worlds. Imagine a platform that incorporates artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics and a good UX and UI design, so you can easily and efficiently find the right transportation for your needs. Maybe this solution can become a reality sooner rather than later.
