The Future of Transport (FoT) is an emerging and evolving concept that envisages citizens having their journey needs to be met by systems of interconnected transport modes and resources that are available ‘as required’ as a single item.

The FoT has the potential to provide greater convenience to citizens, reduce carbon emissions, pollution and congestion. Dynamic, on-demand and automated approaches to transport provision can work alongside traditional transport modes to plug gaps in ‘last and first-mile' transport and logistics providers.

New approaches to mobility will enable individuals to plan and buy travel options from a range of multi-modal service providers, tailored to their needs. Services include Public transport, car sharing, private hire, parking, taxis, bicycle hire, walking, emerging mobility modes including scooters, and connected autonomous vehicles, as well as private vehicles. The FoT serves to address personal needs that can mix car ownership with access to more sustainable alternatives through efficient use of shared public, community, and private services.

The Future of Transport is set to be ever more connected, with innovation across multiple modes of transport, between services providers, and beyond mobility itself. This creates its own challenges, from new commercial models, changed payment relationships, to data privacy, security and interoperability.

Why Transport Matters

Economic and demographic patterns are driving changes in the way human beings live and work.

The majority of the world’s population now resides in cities, and that is expected to grow to 70% by 2050, according to a UN Report. India, China, and Brazil have dedicated mass urbanization programs, as do many other countries. The UK government, for example, has launched a series of consultations and programs on the future of mobility which aims to capitalize on innovations in engineering and technology.

While demographic changes alone will drive the need for individual and global mobility, governments must also consider other factors. With population density and economic clustering in urban areas, governments must address issues of inadequate or aging infrastructures, pollution, congestion, and the devastating ecological impact of concentrated industrialization. 

Additionally, aging or obsolete vehicle fleets, systems that lack interoperability with emerging technologies, and increased user demands for connected services forcing governments to seek innovative technology solutions to existing and future urbanization problems.

If governments and international institutions fail to resolve these issues, mass urbanization and industrialization will engender gross inequalities in social and economic advancement, increase reliance on fossil fuels, destroy fragile ecologies, and contribute to poverty-induced violence and despair.

According to a report by the World Bank, the scale of growth poses several challenges for urban transportation:

• Rapid Urbanization – cities will need infrastructure, services, housing, and employment options for burgeoning populations, all of which impact mobility as a public service. The increased volume of users and consumers of mobility and transport services will cause higher levels of pollution globally.

To read more on the topic of EV, Decarbonization and Net Zero Emissions click here.

• Low-quality public transport - train breakdowns and derailments, bus breakdowns, and other forms of public transport breakdown are a frequent occurrence in developing nations and a source of major concern for transport authorities in more developed nations.  Aging public transport infrastructures add extra pressures to already over-burdened systems. Providing seamless and sustainable public mobility is a serious challenge for almost all governments.

• Increase in motorization – a greater number of people around the world will be mobile in the coming years, increasing pressure on highways and roadways. For nations with aging or inadequate transport infrastructures, the volume of new users will be a major logistical challenge. Many drivers will use smart cars, or access smart transport systems, generating vast quantities of data. Smart cars will generate 290 exabytes of data over the next few years.

• Lack of hierarchical highway, road, and street systems – patchy highway and road development, stretches of underdevelopment in major highway systems, and disconnected road and street systems place extra pressure and costs on public sector transport and maintenance services.

• Lack of Resources (People, Institutions, and Funding) – the pressures of mass urbanization, mass industrialization, and increased population density will add to the demand for publicly funded services such as traffic management, incident response, and protection of transport as a critical national asset for a nation. Budget cuts, funding priorities, and political agendas all determine how governments allocate resources.  Resource allocation may not be enough to resolve some of the more complex transport issues faced by urban populations.

The Role of Transport Innovation Standards

Transport innovation standards play a crucial role in de-risking investment and accelerating the adoption of new automotive technologies through confidence in performance.

BSI is at the global forefront of standardization in the FoT. This is critical in the commercialization of these technologies, building trust, and supporting the creation of new markets at home and internationally.

Successful take-up of new transport services depends very much on providing accurate and easy-to-use personalized services, that hide the complex relationships between the many service providers and the ecosystem. These include transport providers, service aggregators, payment agencies, professional associations, regional transportation agencies, and local authorities, each with a different role in the market, operating within government regulation.

Ubiquitous, interconnected modes of transport rely on the interoperability of systems across and between the transport modes and their operators and users. This interoperability depends as much on the standardization of the practices of actors in FoT as the technology.

As automotive manufacturers make progress on autonomous, electric, and connected vehicle technologies, frameworks such as BS ISO 21219 series and PAS 1881:2020, will play an increasingly important role. The industry needs consensus on standards and best practices to ensure effective interoperability if intelligent vehicles are to reach their full potential.

As vehicles become more connected and automated, keeping up to date and meeting the relevant standards will be vital for your customers, your supply chain, and your competitive edge. Our tailored BSI Knowledge subscription service provides flexibility, access, visibility, and control over the standards and insights your team needs to achieve this objective. With over 2,000 automotive documents available in our GBM27 module, finding the right standards for your business needs just got easier. Request to learn more.

To ensure your automotive business is prepared for the innovations of tomorrow, add these transport innovation standards to your collection today.