Technology, transportation, and urban development are inextricably linked. From steam power to the combustion engine: cities make mobility and mobility makes cities. Building on the inaugural and highly influential Disrupting Mobility Summit in 2015, the second Disrupting Mobility Summit in 2018 will focus on the relationship between future mobility and future cities and on how we can equitably  and sustainably  govern technology innovation and urban transformation.

The disruptive technologies of the early 21st century – global connectivity, artificial intelligence, and renewable energy - will significantly change the nature of transportation and urban development. How we deploy these technologies to (re)organise the interaction of people, goods, information, energy, the built environment, public space, and mobility will shape our cities for the coming decades.

Competing visions of future mobility are pursued and contested. The Summit will feature the state of the art in sustainable urban innovation and provide a forum to explore potential pathways. Will the emerging “electric city” optimise energy, space, and mobility by digitally integrating ubiquitous renewable energy systems, smart grids, intelligent public transport infrastructure and shared electric vehicle fleets? Or will urban development and transportation remain wedded to fossil fuels, private vehicles, conventional motorisation, inefficient land use and the attendant economic, social and ecological dysfunctionality of our urban spaces.  Rapid innovation in big data, machine learning, and distributed energy systems may enable new zero-emission, on-demand and automated mobility services but these may also reinforce unsustainable and socially exclusive transportation and urban development pathways. How do we constructively manage and equitably govern urban transformation and technology innovation to advance sustainable social and economic development and deep decarbonisation?

Future mobility will make future cities. Our aim is to openly address the conflicts inherent to competing and contested visions of urban mobility for the post-carbon age. Disrupting Mobility 2018 will generate robust debate of workable solutions as we explore the opportunities and challenges of integrating, scaling, and governing innovative urban mobility systems.

2018 Summit Themes

Disrupting Mobility 2018 will feature cutting-edge presentations and interactive sessions around the following core themes:

• Beyond smart mobility and smart cities: configuring sustainable urban systems
• From multi-modal to flexi-modular: systems and vehicle design as urban practice.
• Governing the machine: rules, regulations and infrastructure for automated mobility
• Disrupting modes and coupling sectors: integrated urban energy and transport transformation
• The key to the city:  mobility divide, urban accessibility and spatial equity
• Life and livability: environmental quality, public health and active mobility
• Distributed municipal innovation:   user-led urban design  and collaborative land use planning
• Moving people and data: digital public infrastructure  for citizens, users and markets
• Active government, public transport and urban markets: reconciling mobility service production and consumption
• Imminent delivery: reinventing urban supply chains, logistics and goods distribution
• Into thin air: vertical cities and mobility

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