Our top 3 insights from UITP Summit 2023

The UITP Summit 2023, a leading global event for public transportation, brought together mobility experts and stakeholders from across the world to discuss the future of urban mobility. After three days of meetings, presentations and inspiration at the Summit, we’ve gathered our top three insights.

Exciting days at the UITP Summit 2023

We’ve had time to process our days in Barcelona and the UITP Summit 2023. In the exhibition halls, you could find everything from bus manufacturers to software companies and cities – all wanting to create more sustainable mobility. It was some eventful days with discussions, presentations and product demonstrations, exploring the latest trends, opportunities and challenges facing the transport sector. We’ve had much to think about and gathered our most significant insights from the exhibition below.

1. It’s all about the passenger

One key trend at the Summit that we’ve seen before is the evolving passenger-centric approach. Still, much focus is put on vehicles, intelligent functions and optimizing the fleet. Our conclusion is that the most important task for increasing sustainability is getting more people to choose public transportation. To do this, we must make it more attractive and reliable. Important factors are to improve the quality of the real-time information, provide flexible travel options, and continuously work to improve the services. Successful mobility is more than moving people from point A to B. It is about creating livable cities and providing attractive, responsive services to users’ needs.

2. Collaboration is key

Another widely spoken topic at UITP Summit 2023 was the importance of collaborative efforts. Tackling the challenges of modern urban transport is not a one-person job. Public Transport Authorities, Operators, Cities, and Tech companies all need to work together to shape the future of mobility. We must be open to collaborating, learning from each other, and sharing ideas. Each player brings unique expertise and innovative solutions, driving collective progress.

3. Technological progress in Europe

Finally, we saw some interesting trends between different parts of Europe. As mentioned in an article after IT Trans last year, Nordic countries are at the forefront of technological development with online solutions and open data. However, we now see more European countries progressing in the same direction. There’s a growing understanding of the benefits of open data and data-driven strategies in enhancing public transport services. This progress shows that we’re on the right way.

In summary

To sum it up, the UITP 2023 Summit gave us much to think about. The future of public transport is about putting customers first, harnessing the power of collaboration, and learning from successes wherever they happen. It’s an exciting journey, and we’re ready to continue improving public transport, making it people’s first choice.