News on modern urban mobility: Avant-garde or haze in Augsburg and Singapore?
Augsburg, a city in Bavaria, Germany with a population close to 300,000, and Singapore — South-East Asia’s most modern and digital mega-city, don’t have much in common. Early November 2019 both announced, likely unrelated to each other, though attention-attracting news, which may impact urban mobility decisively.
Singapore announced that electric scooters, about 100,000 are registered, are banned from footpaths as of November 5, 2019 — offenders face hefty fines and jail time from January 2020 onward. For many the ban came at a surprise and sudden.
About 10,000 km away and as of November 1, 2019, Augsburg is the first city in Germany to introduce a mobility flat rate for the local transport system. It’s unclear yet if it will include electric scooters, but customers can use public buses and trams as often as they like and — to a limited extent — rental bikes and car sharing.
Singapore, known for progressive, and technology-driven innovations in mobility, industry and commerce, announced October 23, 2017 the new growth target for cars and motorcycles to be set at 0% as of February 2018.
The fast and silent scooters cause increased risks and number of accidents on the narrow Singaporean footpaths, so change was needed. Saying that, its short- and medium-term effects on the islands urban mobility culture and environment are in the haze, especially for the for countless middle and lower-class Singaporeans who use scooters as an essential source of income. It seems that they aren’t left with many adequate alternatives.
What modern urban mobility looks like tomorrow
Cars and motorcycles of today may not be part of a sustainable, connected, digital urban mobility solution for the city of tomorrow; environmentally friendly electric scooters and more investments into the network and infrastructure may be.
Our decedents might one day observe today’s cars and scooters in the curiosity department of future museums, as everyone flies, hovers, or “hyper-loops” around autonomously and environmentally friendly while eating, sleeping, working, playing, reading. They might just wonder why we wasted time doing ourselves, what technology and machines can do better and safer for us. What we do today decides what will be featured in those future museums.
What museums we want our decedents to visit
We don’t know for sure what past our descendants will visit in future museums. We know that change is the only constant and sometimes painful, so let’s do our best to focus on social inclusion, environmentally friendly and technology-driven innovation today. Then we can all happily scoot, drive, or walk around, knowing that neither our environment, way to earn a living, health, nor well-being are at risk.
