International Book Brings Experts Together to Disrupt Mobility

September 14, 2017

Submitted by admin on Fri, 2017-01-06 12:45

Taking revolutionary ideas one step further to impact the future of mobility, editors Gereon Meyer and Susan Shaheen combine the best ideas from the sharing economy and smart cities that could truly disrupt mobility with their new book Disrupting Mobility Impacts of Sharing Economy and Innovative Transportation on Cities, based on the Disrupting Mobility (DM) Summit held in Cambridge, MA (USA) in November 2015.

“After a year of editing this book, we are delighted to share its insights with our colleagues. It reflects the exciting exchange we shared in 2015, through a volume of 20 peer reviewed papers dedicated to the future of mobility from a global perspective,” says Shaheen, Co-Director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at University of California Berkeley. “While there is much more dialogue and research needed to prepare for future disruptions in mobility, this book provides a solid foundation for fostering critical collaborations among the public, private, and academic sectors.”
The summit was the first global occasion to bring together top thought leaders from around the world for a critical exchange on transportation trends and issues.
“We are really enthusiastic about the future perspectives that the authors of our book develop in their chapters: Truly disruptive innovation potential can be unlocked, if technologies like electric cars and self-driving pods are combined with game-changing business and operational models like ridesourcing and carsharing,” says Meyer, Head of Strategic Projects of the Future Technologies and Europe Department at VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH in Berlin. “It seems like a whole new mobility system is arising that makes travel cheaper, cleaner and more accessible, particularly in cities.”
Summit organizers included leading academics from the City Science Initiative at MIT Media Lab, the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and Politics, and the Innovation Center for Mobility and Societal Change (InnoZ) in Berlin.
Partners and sponsors of the event include the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences, Stiftung Mercartor, and the Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft Das Internationale Forum der Deutschen Bank, Zipcar, Enterprise CarShare, RideScout, BCycle and Bridj, Lyft, Hubway, Munich RE, the Shared-Use Mobility Center, TransitCenter, and Via, and Transportation for America.
Based on the success of and new dialogues launched at the summit, Shaheen and Meyer invited speakers and poster presenters to submit chapters that document and continue these innovative conversations.
Chapters were peer reviewed prior to publication, helping to identify some the best pieces from the vast knowledge shared at the summit and to make contributions available to key stakeholders, including cities, to facilitate informed decision making on how to best prepare and plan for ongoing and future disruption.
The book is divided into three parts. The first section, Public Sector Activities, analyzes trends shaping mobility of people and goods and looks at technology development and public transit planning.
The second section, Sharing Economy and Multimodal Mobility, examines costs and benefits of bikesharing, carsharing, and shared-ride services; the relationship between conventional public transit and shared mobility systems; behavioral aspects related to Intelligent Traveler Information Systems; and smartphone applications in transportation.
The third section, Innovative Transportation Technologies and City Design, focuses on the mitigation potential for greenhouse gas emissions; accessibility; human behavioral shifts toward shared, connected, and automated vehicle services in urban settings; electric, connected, and smart bicycles in encouraging more cycling; and the concept of mobilescapes where automated vehicles transform into meaningful dynamic environments.
Much like the summit, the book contents are intended to stimulate fruitful discussions, proactive choices, and informed decision making around the future of mobility that yields more sustainable, equitable, and accessible transportation choices for all citizens across the globe.
Scholars, students, managers, planners, and engineers are encouraged to continue the academic discourse in light of upcoming challenges and opportunities for mobility disruption in the areas of aviation, goods movement, and suburban and rural transport at national and international levels.
The book will be publicly released in the context of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) 96th Annual Meeting to be held in Washington D.C. and is available from Springer Books:http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-51602-8