What’s going on? Why are people in urban settings changing how they get around? What’s changed? Better access to transit? More interest in the environment ? Or just a change in perspective?

Take the recently wrapped up Car Sharing Conference in Vancouver, it has a few of us here at bv02 thinking about the ubiquity of transit, mobility and how millennials  have completely reshaped the way we now approach transportation. The likelihood of a millennial owning a car is decreasing  – we are now seeing trends that indicate preferences (or options) to using public transportation, car sharing or cycling as  a preferred method of transportation.

according to research done by onesky.ca there were 67,526 members sharing 2,285 cars across Canada in 2010. Four years later, there were 280,000 car association members sharing 5,000 cars across Canada (theglobeandmail). If you do the math you’ll see that although the number of cars only came close to doubling, the number of car sharing members over quadrupled 

So what’s next? =Well, it’s already happening. People and lifestyles are becoming reducingly controlled by the methods of transportation around them, they will change directions based on convenience and what it is they’re after. The question is – does this all have to do with millennials? Well, according to a study by the American Public Transportation Association, nearly 70% of millennials use varying methods of transportation each week.

Now, think of how technology fits into all of this. Let’s say, John Doe wakes up to his alarm which tells him the weather forecast for today. Turns out it will be sunny with a chance of precipitation in the afternoon. John decides (making a user centric and personal choice) to take advantage of the nice weather while he can, so he takes a Bixi bike to work. At lunch, he takes an Uber to a client meeting. Returning home, he decides to use public transportation. How does he maneuver between service options so fluidly? The answer is technology, mobile or IoT rather.

Let’s face it, transportation services are not entirely incumbent on diplomacy. Users are shaping their commuting styles to reflect their wallets, time and personal preferences. It’s likely that multi-modal transportation will reshape the cities and lifestyles we see before us (because after all,  it has become the lifeline of the city we call home). Urban planning plots the information, but urban design puts it to good use. This has allowed urban transit to play a big part in understanding how people make their decision based on their wants, needs and obligations. We could imagine the data that would come from this and what it could tell us, but we’ll save that for another blog.

Welcome to the age of taking the reins!

I would love to hear your thoughts on this massive change.. Drop me a line and/or check out my VIDEO’s and Blogs on the bv02 website.

Andrew
Some interesting links:

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