Urban Mobility Lab Launched In Bangalore By Rocky Mountain Institute And Micelio
Rocky Mountain Institute and Micelio, in partnership with the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), Invest Karnataka Forum, and Department of Industries and Commerce (DIC), have just launched their Urban Mobility Lab in Bangalore with the aim of identifying, developing, and implementing mobility solutions that transform how people and goods move.
A two day, multi stakeholder multi stakeholder workshop was held between 19 and 20 February, and saw a culmination of over 150 participants from the mobility ecosystem in Bangalore, who worked together to address system-level barriers and develop implementation plans for the city. The workshop revolved around six thematic areas – charging and battery swapping infrastructure, data-based solutions, electric vehicle manufacturing, first and last-mile connectivity, public transit, and urban final-mile delivery. Tejasvi Surya, a Member of Parliament for Bengalore South said, “All transport agencies that we have, including our private operators must work in a coordinated fashion towards a common objective. Revising transport laws is also important.”
“The concern with monopoly in public transport must be addressed with more private players coming in. We need to make our people use public transport and avoid private vehicles. We also need to look into increasing the size of the fleet in our city. What is lacking in the indian context is the lack of specialists in managing urban mobility decisions which is a concern,” she added. Shreyas Shibulal, the Founder and Director at Micelio, said, “The collaborative effort of the last six months bringing together all key stakeholders – the government, private sector, and civil society under one roof has been fruitful to identify solutions that will eventually accelerate Bengalore’s transition towards shared, clean and citizen-centric mobility. This is just the beginning. At Micelio, we are committed to going the distance to make this happen.”
The Urban Mobility Lab is a platform that helps leading urban geographies, called Lighthouse Cities to identify, integrate, implement, and scale mobility solutions that transform how people and goods move. The Lab was launched in November 2017, when NITI Aayog and RMI launched a grand challenge to select the first host city.