Name: The future of urban mobility after the pandemic | CNBC Reports
Uploaded: 2020-10-08T20:50:16.000Z
Duration: 6 min 48 s
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The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to change our way of life, particularly in cities.

As urban areas around the world emerge from lockdown,

how will city planners enforce social distancing

while allowing the mobility that binds cities together?

From as far back as the Athens plague in 430 BC,

which changed the tide of battle in Athens's war against Sparta,

to London's Cholera outbreak in the 1850s, pandemics have always left their mark on societies.

This is the Victoria Embankment.  Completed in 1870, it's a promenade that runs

for a mile and a quarter along the river Thames and is one of London's most popular landmarks.

But it was built, not as an attraction, but to save lives

through a new modern sewage system to prevent future cholera outbreaks.

Fast forward 150 years and this time the focus for cities

is not better sewage systems but ways to maintain social distancing.

During the pandemic social distancing on public transport is impractical,

while reverting to the use of cars will only add to the pollution

and heavily congested roads in cities. So, what other solutions are there?

We think that millions more people can cycle in London.

Will Norman is London's walking and cycling commissioner.

It's his job to encourage people to walk and cycle in the city

by creating safe cycle lanes and widening pavements and sidewalks.

We're seeing bike shops selling out of bikes.

We're seeing queues around the corner to get bikes repaired.

There's massive potential here but that will only be realised if we make the streets safe,

and that involves three things: first of all, protected bike lanes on main roads,

we've got wider pavements, because if you're crammed into narrow little spaces then people

aren't going to be able to socially distance. And the third piece is low traffic neighbourhoods,

and that's where we've got kids playing out in the street, we've got kids cycling.

Now those three aspects will enable more people to walk and more people to cycle.

Transport for London, the transport authority for the city,

has already built more than 100 miles of cycleway routes, with plans to expand the network further.

So, as urban planners reclaim the roads for cycle highways, are there signs it's working?

What we saw was a lot of people at home that were experiencing a warm spring,

there were transport restrictions, people were bored,

and it became this almost panic to buy bicycles and alternative modes of transport.

Analog motion is a London-based company that makes electric bikes.

It doesn't look like this trend is going to decrease any time soon,

if anything it will continue into next year as well.

It must be exciting as well to see TfL take such a leading role in trying to encourage cycling in the city.

There's a mental barrier to entry, cycling in London  as it's seen as kind of dangerous and a bit scary

and anything that boosts people's confidence like separated cycle lanes is really encouraging

and will have really positive effects on the number of cyclists you'll see on the road.

But it's not just the bicycle and e-bicycle businesses that are booming.

The aim to reduce the number of passengers on public transport

has opened the door for micromobility vehicles to fill the gap

and provide different ways for people to travel. Micromobility vehicles are small

and usually run on electricity, such as electric scooters and electric skateboards.

Despite the popularity of these forms of transport, many major cities around the world

have banned them or imposed laws governing their usage.

In the U.K., the pandemic has accelerated plans to capitalise on the growing industry.

The global electric scooter market size was recently valued at $20 billion

and is estimated to be worth $42 billion by 2030. The number of shared e-scooters worldwide

is expected to rise from 774,000 in 2019 to 4.6 million by 2024.

One of the world's leading e-scooter sharing companies is California-based Bird.

I do think there's always an adoption period when you're the new kid on the block.

It stands out so people have a lot of questions. What we've seen is the scooters go similar speeds

as someone on a bicycle and it's actually a similar width as a bicycle

so it actually fits quite neatly into the bike lane infrastructure if cities have bike lanes.

So cities that we've seen that have a lot of micromobility lanes already,

there we've seen the adoption go much quicker.

Recently, the company shut down its entire Middle East operation

and destroyed between 8000 and 10,000 e-scooters.

We had a merger and acquired a company there.

You know, any time you merge two companies there's a lot of things to figure out.

Is it specific on the region whether e-scooters and e-scooter sharing works?

No, I'm personally very excited about the region. You know, I've spoken with a lot of city managers there

and they too want to make their cities more efficient and less dependent on cars.

Voi, a Swedish e-scooter sharing start-up and one of Bird's leading competitors,

has plans to make the U.K. one of its leading markets.

They even hired Bird's former UK chief, Richard Corbett, to head up their operations in the region.

I think we are in a transitionary period now where we're going from

no micromobility in the city landscape to this huge growth of micromobility.

Do you think that Londoners themselves are crying out for e-scooters?

Yes, London needs to get moving. We are, in London, more overreliant on public transport

than any other city in the UK, purely because we have such a great public transport system.

In this environment post-Covid where we need to maintain social distancing,

this overreliance on public transport has pushed for a greater need than normal

to have services like Voi operational in the city.

A lot of people are talking about e-scooters, micromobility,

are TfL seriously considering putting in place plans to accommodate that?

So I think the main thrust is walking and cycling, but you're right,

there are new technologies and new options out there.

The last thing I want is all these e-scooters to be all over the pavement.

We as a city, and cities across the U.K. need the power to regulate

and to be able to cap the numbers of the scooters.  So let's have a look at what role they can play in the city

but lets make sure that's done safely and it works for everybody.

With over half of the world's population living in cities,

urban mobility has to evolve in response to climate and health concerns.

It's the job of urban planners, business leaders and entrepreneurs to drive that change

with the help of new technology and ensure cities bounce back better than before.

We'd like to know what the urban mobility is like in your city.

Comment below the video to let us know and don't forget to subscribe.