Helsinki plans to eliminate need for car infopost

In less than a decade, the citizens of Helsinki will see the need to own a car as private property eliminated, if the Finnish capital meets the ambitious target it has set for itself. The plan to achieve this involves building an integrated public transport system and private, rather than maintaining systems of buses, trains, taxis, carpool services, etc., separated from each other and possibly not connected to other segments possibly necessary to complete a single journey.

From the planning to the payment of the trip, all the elements of the system would be accessible from a mobile device, through the use of multimodal transport apps, to combine the different types of transport in the most efficient and quick way possible. Citizens could use their mobiles to manage a shared vehicle, demand a bus -whose routes would be flexible depending on demand-, special transport for children, or access traditional public transport. They could also purchase mobility packages from private operators who could provide a range of options depending on demand at the time or the weather.

The idea is that the system is focused on mobility, rather than on each physical mode of transport, and make extensive use of the potential of digital tools that citizens already have, to achieve flexibility based on demand and as a form of payment. In the words of Sonja Heikkilä, a transport engineer at the Helsinki City Council who focused her thesis on mobility as a service, the role of the city is to make “the market emerge”. This would be an outstanding example of the public sector acting as an integrator of innovative models, based on digital disruption, beyond the usual role of service provider.