Using platform logics in the creative destruction of urban transport : A transitional path to sustainability

The transport sector faces challenges relating to the climate, local environment, congestion, funding and equality, and uncertainties over political leadership, self-driving vehicles, citizens’ reactions, and how the system is understood. Despite ambitious goals and investments, problems escalate via motoring’s self-supporting processes: more cars, more roads, longer journeys, urban sprawl, more cars ... . Neither technical streamlining nor public-transport investment can trump the process. This paper examines if we can use methods provided by the fourth industrial (r)evolution to promote the creative destruction of urban-transport systems and embark on a transitional path to sustainability. The starting points are: transport’s role in creating accessibility; the sector’s inherent logic and vast unused capacity, particularly in infrastructure; and the methods and business models of the burgeoning digital-platform monopolies. A feasible future is described, based on a digital multimodal urban-transport platform for information and payment. This provides the base services: space on streets, roads, rails, car parks and public transport. The technology exists but institutional problems abound. Radical public-sector innovations are required. The paper identifies opportunities and obstacles. Finally, it evaluates the potential to realize these ambitious goals (and the risks involved), focusing especially on public transport’s role in a reorganized system of this kind.QC 20200702