Digitalisation, data collection, paratransit and decarbonisation: what MobiliseYourCity brought to ADB Transport Forum

 

Thanks to the close collaboration with ADB, MobiliseYourCity and its implementing partners were offered the chance to bring up topics of interest to our city and country members throughout the ADB Transport Forum, taking place online from 5 to 7 April 2022.  

On April 6, Solene Baffi, Project Manager at CODATU, addressed the topic of paratransit, presenting the challenges related to accessibility or inclusion. She noted that paratransit should be considered a complementary system, despite its negative externalities, such as pollution and congestion. Even if the mitigation of those elements can be difficult, she presented examples of reforms that were made possible through close collaboration with paratransit stakeholders, especially owners and operators. These reforms enabled to have more sustainable behaviours, better services for users, and better jobs. 

On the same day, Sasank Vemuri, Coordinator of the MobiliseYourCity Partnership, shared the importance of digitalisation and electrification for urban transport innovation, highlighting Asia’s leading role in the sector. He also emphasized the importance to improve the attractiveness of walking, cycling, and paratransit services to achieve net-zero cities of the future. He shared experiences from MobiliseYourCity members showing how Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) and National Urban Mobility Policies (NUMPs), can help identify opportunities for both incremental innovations within specific projects as well as more transformative innovations at the city systems levels. 

On the last day of the event, Lise Breuil, Head of Transport & Mobility Division at Agence Française de Développement, insisted on the need for a new mobility pattern that would evolve from individual systems to mass transit. In line with this statement, she underlined that AFD should ensure that the funding of sustainable transport infrastructure projects is linked to the promotion of policy changes and the development of a systemic approach for urban mobility in order to create an enabling governance system with an integrated view of mobility.  

To learn more about the main takeaways of these three days of engaging discussions at the ADB Transport Forum, check out the official website here.