Technology & Innovation

How mobile is transforming passenger transportation

December 15, 2014

North America

December 15, 2014

North America
Carolyn Whelan

Senior editor, Americas

Carolyn is a senior editor for The Economist Intelligence Unit's thought leadership division in the Americas. She manages research programs for foundations and corporations on topics ranging from urbanization and jobs to sustainability and youth economic prospects. She has over 20 years’ experience in journalism. Until 2013 Carolyn contributed articles to Fortune, Newsweek, the IHT and SciAm.com about urbanization, infrastructure, trade, technology and transportation, among other topics. She has also written materials for Ernst & Young, Columbia Business School and the United Nations. Earlier Carolyn covered the technology and healthcare beats for Barron’s Online and Dow Jones Newswires in Paris, respectively. She broke into journalism covering the 1992 Earth Summit and subsequently worked for the World Wildlife Fund in Switzerland. Ms. Whelan holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Virginia and is a 2006 Columbia Business School Knight-Bagehot Fellow. She is Swiss and American, and speaks fluent French and Spanish.

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Mobile devices are already making our journeys faster, safer and more reliable, while improving efficiency and reducing costs.

Report Summary

Transportation is a sector straining to keep pace with rapid population growth and shifting mobility patterns. Its principal pain points are congestion and high costs. 

These operational headaches can be alleviated with new and interactive offerings made available by the proliferation of mobile technologies. As real-time data becomes increasingly available and integrated across different modes in the transportation supply chain, they could help boost system efficiencies, to better engage with passengers and to lower costs. 

How mobile is transforming passenger transportation is a survey-based report, sponsored by SAP, examining the impact of mobile technology on the transportation industry.

 

"Transport is moving from tracks and trams to a customer-service mindset....The benchmark will be against the best companies in service."

-Nathan Marsh, Director of the performance improvement practice at EY

 

Research Methodology

Survey results are based on 116 responses from transport executives spanning the globe. Most respondents hail from private transportation operators (61%), public transportation operators (21%) and government or transportation agencies (18%). Executives are based in Europe and the Middle East (34%), North America (28%), Latin America (21%) and Africa/CIS (17%). More than half (53%) are C-level executives or equivalent, 17% are vice-presidents or equivalent and 9% are senior managers. Two thirds work at organisations with annual revenues of more than $500M.

We would like to thank all of the executives who participated on the record and anonymously for their incisive views. 

Interviewees

Adam Cohen, researcher, Transportation Sustainability Research Center, University of California at Berkeley
Jacqueline Kopp, research expert on transport, Center for Urban Development, Columbia University
Ray LaHood, chair of the MTA (New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority) Reinvention Commission and US secretary of
transportation from 2009 to 2013
Nathan Marsh, director, performance improvement practice, EY
Graham Parkhurst, director, Centre for Transport and Society, University of West of England, Bristol
Michael Replogle, managing director for policy, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP)
Bill Wheeler, director of planning, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Mike Wilson, managing director, transportation practice North America, Accenture

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