Public Transport 2045
A new working paper from the Ministry of Transport, explores the long-term future of public transport in New Zealand’s cities, in a world where transport technologies and services are rapidly evolving.
It is intended to provoke dialogue, and to challenge the assumptions that public transport in thirty years’ time will look only slightly different from what we are familiar with today—or alternatively, that it has to look completely different in every way.
This working paper includes the following.
- Views on public transport: A summary of prevailing views on the future of public transport in New Zealand, based on interviews with transport experts and stakeholders.
- Four future scenarios: These scenarios do not describe what the future will be like. Instead, they envision how automation and urbanisation could affect urban transport in the future. We used these scenarios to explore implications for public transport and our cities.
- Insights from the futures: Implications of increasing automation and shared mobility for our public transport systems.
Although the working paper focuses on ways that new technologies and services could affect transport and our cities, an underlying message is that our future should not simply be technology-led.
The paper says we need to be discerning about new technologies, and shape them in ways that improve urban liveability and people’s wellbeing far into the future.