A walkable city

As widespread electrification of mobility arrives, there’s a debate ongoing about which source of renewable energy is most efficient in terms of accessibility, land use, impact on the local environment and ease of use. Scientists agree that proximity of production is a key factor to avoid transportation-related loss of power. Unfortunately, however, not every area has the same ability to produce clean energy and many are still dependent on the grid.

The same thing happens with mobility. There are areas with huge demands for mobility, and a grid of roads, rails and paths are how we, the ‘electrons’ that run society, move.

So, what’s the most efficient way of moving around? Well, that’s pretty easy: our oldest form of mobility, walking, is still the most efficient, accessible, uses less land and has the lowest environmental impact.

Therefore, we aim for a walkable city, where nothing is more than 10-15 minutes away, where there’s no need for cars, or even public transportation; a village-like city. This means having all the regular (daily, weekly, monthly) services and products within 1km of your home. How far are we from this goal, though? Well, a combination of car-free city centres initiatives and urban development focused on walkable paths is already allowing many European cities to start glimpsing this ideal.

Reality, though, is far more complex. According to an independent studyby SD Worx, the average European worker commutes almost 15 km each way to work. That’s a long way from becoming a 15 minutes walk. And, whilst the pandemic and the new “work from home” trend may help towards this goal, we have adapted our lives to use motorized transportation and it is unlikely that this will change anytime soon.

Luckily, however, we have public transportation and new mobility tools that are helping the transition to a more environmentally friendly city.

But what happens in suburban and rural areas? Those lower density areas are unlikely to have all their needs covered within such a short range and are highly dependent on private cars. Lack of demand and infrastructure in those areas can be overcome by smarter approaches to meeting mobility needs. Here we believe demand-responsive transit like Shotl can save the day and become the cornerstone of shortening distances for those communities. At least, that is, until we regonfigure our lives to have everything within 1km of our homes.

Popular posts

Read more

22.07.22

The rising role of the 'Community Driver'

Drivers of on-demand bus services, also labelled community drivers, have a very important role as ambassadors of the neighborhood. They are helpful to physically challenged commuters and responsible and trustworthy when caring for minors.


Jonàs Ramírez
Read more

30.09.19

Shotl are heading to the Middle East this Fall

This Autumn sees us head out a little further afield as we attend the Dubai World Congress for Self-driving Transport as well as two other notable Tech and Transport events right here in Europe.


Sílvia Coronado
Read more

24.02.20

Turning AV into Demand Responsive

In February, Shotl were invited to participate in the 3rd and final phase of the EU research project FABULOS (part of Horizon 2020). We entered this phase of the project alongside Sensible 4.


Adrià Ramírez
;
Subscribe to our Newsletter