In advance of the World Passenger Festival 2023, I was asked to answer a few questions. These were published in a document for those attending. (Question 1 is here)
Here's the second question.
What is your vision for the future of public transport
and where are the biggest challenges we face today?
We are all unfortunately doing a great job of destroying our
environment. We are doing this by pumping so much new Carbon Dioxide and other
gases into our atmosphere that it reflects heat back at us and cooks the
planet. Second on the list of the biggest Greenhouse Gas emitters (after Energy
production) is our own sector, which includes all passenger & freight
transportation via land, sea and air. We therefore have a responsibility to
stop this and urgently move to modes that can convey people and goods for the
least amount of carbon.
Public transport therefore has a huge role to play in our
shift to Net Zero, especially as part of a more joined-up mobility ecosystem.
Or put more clearly… all multi-modal mobility services & platforms must now
have sustainable public transport at their core.
One key data related challenge, that most people across the
sector are not yet aware of, is customer data lock-in. The GDPR Right to Data
Portability is very clear and enforceable. It allows individuals to obtain and
reuse their personal data for their own purposes across different services.
Meaning they have the right to move, copy or transfer personal data easily from
transport platform to another in a safe and secure way, without affecting its
usability. But when you look at the functionality of most transport accounts,
there’s no way for a customer to move their data between providers and
platforms. It therefore cannot be exported, shared, or integrated with data
from other modes and providers to create a more holistic view of a passenger’s
tickets & journeys. Also, with many regions or city authorities either
having recently implemented or now looking to introduce different Account Based
Ticketing and Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) apps, the issue of locked-in transport
data is going to get worse. Then, once this GDPR Right starts to be enforced by
the relevant governments, the sector will have a lot of work on its hands to
change systems and processes quickly.
What does data portability have to do with Net Zero aims?
Well, I believe that it is only by having a completely joined up view of all
mobility data, can we then hope to properly change customer behaviour and move
them to more sustainable public transport modes. Or stated more simply… no
data, no decarbonisation!
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