Circular Economy Innovation & Technology

Shared Mobility, Accessibility, Electrification Among Keys to Sustainable Urban Future

The future of our cities is at stake, and it is our duty to find solutions that allow us to offer our users what they demand: more efficient and sustainable cities, at the service of people and not their cars.

Brand Provided | By David Pérez Piñeiro | Published 2 years ago | About a 4 minute read

Image: Denys Nevozhai/Unsplash

I remember starting 2022 hoping that people’s New Year’s resolutions would not only be linked to personal or professional well-being, but also have a stronger link to the environment and to a commitment to improving city life. It was an ephemeral feeling, soon followed by various events that have turned the world upside down.

Cities are spaces in which more and more people live their lives, leading them to become socioeconomic, political and cultural centers with broad offerings. However, despite all the benefits, their growth also brings sustainability problems including pollution, urban space management, and so on.

On the other hand, the way we move is also a key aspect in the growth of cities. The number of private vehicles on the roads has increased exponentially, causing a significant environmental impact. Indeed, according to the IEA Tracking Transport 2020 report, the transport sector is one of the main emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and the one with the greatest growth in such emissions — now accounting for as much as 24 percent of total CO2 emissions — a percentage that speaks for itself and calls us to reflect on the race we find ourselves in, in the fight against climate change.

For this reason, it is essential to foster a common commitment by which all actors can work together in the same direction. In this sense, the “Shared Mobility Principles” — prepared by the New Urban Mobility Alliance, a working group of international NGOs — aim to guide decision-makers in the field of sustainable urban mobility.

Making a commitment to the proper management of urban spaces; making mobility modalities more accessible for all population groupings, such as the elderly and people with disabilities; involving all stakeholders in decision-making processes; and transitioning towards a net-zero model are just some of the points that we have been working on for some time at Cabify. With such principles, we reaffirm our commitment to sustainable mobility, on which we rely in order to meet our objectives.

Towards electrification and shared mobility to the benefit of our planet

According to the People’s Climate Vote survey, administered under the United Nations Development Program and by the University of Oxford, climate change is considered a global emergency and a concern for 70 percent of Spaniards and 63 percent of the citizens of Latin America and the Caribbean. At Cabify, we are aware of the situation the planet is facing; and we are working hard to offer mobility services based on sustainability, safety, quality and diversity — positioning ourselves as an alternative to private cars. In this regard, ride-hailing services and various electric, micro-mobility options are favorable solutions for shared mobility that reduce both the percentage of emissions generated by transport and the number of vehicles circulating in our cities. Spaces liberated by reducing private car use can then be put at the service of people and used more efficiently — with the creation of new parks, green areas, cultural and sports facilities, and so on.

Electrification is another of the great challenges of sustainable mobility; and, at Cabify, we are working hard to enable our fleet to be 100 percent electric by 2025 in Spain, and 2030 in Latin America. While we move towards this target, we continue to offset all of our CO2 emissions; since 2018, we have managed to offset more than 375,000 tons of CO2 — the amount absorbed by as many as 21 million trees in their first 10 years of life.

Making cities a better place to live

The Reimagining Cities study that we published in November 2021 revealed how 64.2 percent of Spaniards and 71.5 percent of Latin Americans agreed that too much urban space in our cities is dedicated to cars. This makes us reflect on the prominence that other modes of transport will take on for citizens, and will affect how they perceive cities.

In any case, the dominance of urban spaces by vehicles is not only a concern for citizens, but also for other various actors — just like us — that are working to improve the situation. The goal is twofold: to satisfy the demands of users; and to make more efficient, sustainable mobility options available to them.

We are facing a challenging situation, in which new sustainable mobility models play an increasingly important role. The future of our cities is at stake, and it is our duty to find solutions that allow us to offer our users what they demand: more efficient and sustainable cities, at the service of people and not their cars.