The Tomorrow.Mobility World Congress (TMWC), co-organised by Fira Barcelona and EIT Urban Mobility, welcomed over 25,000 attendees from 130 countries to Barcelona last week. Now in its fourth year, the congress ran alongside the Smart City Expo World Congress, drawing students, researchers, businesses, city officials and industry experts to discuss this year’s theme: “Move Better.”
From keynote speeches to roundtable discussions, attendees engaged in over 260 sessions with 630 speakers, exploring challenges and future directions for sustainable urban mobility. Repeatedly, discussions highlighted the critical need for accessible, inclusive mobility systems built through collaboration among diverse stakeholders.
Accessibility at the Paris Olympics
Olivier Francios, Vice President and Chief of Staff at Ile-De-France Mobilités, underscored the significance of accessible public transport in a keynote about the Paris 2024 Olympics. With both the Olympics and Paralympics taking place in Paris, he emphasised the importance of linking stadiums with the city’s key tourist sites via public transit. “Île-de-France Mobilités took great pains to provide public transport to all 25 Olympic sites, and for the first time, the Olympics were 100% accessible on public transport and 100% carbon-free,” he stated.
To accommodate both athletes and spectators, efforts included expanding public transport access and making existing stations accessible to people with varied physical needs. While achieving a fully accessible public transport network in the City of Paris will take another two decades, the Région Ile de France increased the number of accessible stations fivefold, with nearly 300 newly accessible stations available for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics.
Autonomous vehicles for accessibility
During the session on Autonomous Technologies for Improved Mobility, Catriona Meehan, Founder of Startingup PA, expressed optimism about autonomous vehicles (AVs) as tools for accessibility. “This is a really exciting opportunity that we have in front of us… as we are integrating AVs into the mobility ecosystem, we could think about a different set of solutions for everyone, people who have different physical and sensory needs,” she shared. Daniel Serra Segarra, Director of Ecosystem and Stakeholders at EIT Urban Mobility, agreed, adding, “Shared autonomous vehicles are the future of sustainable urban mobility.”
Meehan also highlighted the need for regulations to ensure AVs are usable for all, emphasising:
“It is really important to ensure that these voices are heard, and it is a challenge that regulators are going to have to step up to.”
Designing cities for all ages
Anniina Autero, Head of Development for the Finnish Tampereen kaupunki – City of Tampere, advocated for age-inclusive mobility: “Mobility should allow everyone, from children to seniors, to live their lives, feel comfortable and feel safe.” Many TMWC discussions centred around designing liveable cities for residents of all ages.
Ruth Amos, Inventor and Co-Founder at Kids Invent Stuff, highlighted the unique value children bring to urban planning, particularly for car-free urban spaces. She explained that, unlike adults, children’s designs don’t centre around cars, focusing instead on the simple things: “clean, safe, and enjoyable streets.” The City of Tampere’s project involving children in park design through the use of the computer game Minecraft illustrated this approach. “The children were fantastic in their communication with us. They were able to build their own worlds, and they didn’t need any instruction,” Autero noted. Amos echoed the importance of including children:
“We want children to feel valued in our city and part of that process… if we can get urban planning and street design right, we can positively influence the future for our children.”
Collaborative design and development
Paloma Nieri Romero, Urban Planning Project Manager at CARNET, emphasised citizen engagement, especially the need for participation from people with disabilities. “Not only taking them into account in the solutions but co-creation of strategies,” Nieri explained. “They are the ones that know what is best for them, so including them in the creation of the strategies and solutions from the very beginning is very important.”
As a representative of her city, Autero stressed the role of the public sector in advocating for inclusive solutions, “We need to get everyone on board, the public sector has to take care of everyone.” Melanie Grötsch, Head of Research and Innovation for the Landeshauptstadt München, echoed this view:
“It is our responsibility as a city; it is mobility for all, and all is really inclusive for everyone.”
She noted potential risks as digitalisation in urban mobility becomes more and more commonplace, putting seniors and other groups at risk of social isolation while they struggle to navigate digital tools. Grotsch explained how the City of Munich addressed this gap in knowledge by pairing young people with seniors to enhance digital literacy and ensure public transport access; ultimately creating social mix and greater inclusion for all participants regardless of age. Claudia Falkinger, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Punkt vor Strich, echoed her concerns about the numerous hurdles that people face when trying to move around their cities, noting that POINT&’s research has found only 10% of seniors utilise digital mobility services. She noted:
“Mobility is currently only designed for digitally, mentally, and physically fit people,”
Falkinger then explained the need for diversity in the teams that design and implement mobility solutions. She noted that POINT&’s research found a correlation between the presence of women in mobility and planning teams and the number of women who use these transport services, highlighting that women currently only comprise 17% of the EU’s transport workforce.
Indeed, a focus back on people and not just digital solutions will be necessary to accelerate the transition to sustainable urban mobility. As Jordi Casas Juan, Coordinator of RACC’s Mobility Institute summed up:
“Universal mobility access is essential for equitable societies, without it we risk leaving many behind…the green transition must focus on people, not just the environment.”
Want to know more? Mark your calendars, Tomorrow.Mobility World Congress 2025 will take place from 4-6 November in Barcelona!
