How transit agencies are taking innovation from here to there 

While exchanging mobility challenges in their cities and strategies for pursuing solutions during a moderated discussion in September, Rikesh Shah, Head of Innovation at Transport for London and Molly Poppe, Chief Innovation Officer at the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) shared this sentiment: they want to lose their jobs.

The two recognize that transit agencies are responsible for far more than getting people from Point A to Point B; transit is connectivity to employment opportunities, services, goods, and social capital. The performance of a transportation system both indicates and impacts a city’s economic health as well as residents’ quality of life. With that comes a responsibility and incentive for transit agencies to provide a mode that is safe, efficient, equitable, and accessible with minimal environmental repercussions. Doing that well and with longevity is a very heavy lift.

Innovation roles are relatively new in transit agencies, and when asked about moonshot goals, Rikesh and Molly both said they hope their roles will not last long. Rather than compartmentalizing innovation in one job title or department, they want to influence a future in which creative thinking, tech integration, and strategic partnerships are inherently embedded across transit agencies to produce more results and impact change on a greater scale.

So, what does innovation look like until then?

Today, innovation in public transit means truly understanding the customers’ experience, making meaningful changes – big or small, and establishing strategic partnerships to make those changes achievable.

At City Tech, we know that some problems cannot be solved alone. Pooling knowledge, capabilities, and resources from diverse stakeholders strengthens the impact and scalability of solutions. For that reason, City Tech was happy to invite members of the Advanced Mobility Initiative and a delegation of London’s high-growth urban companies, hosted by London and Partners , to join this discussion and expand the multi-national perspective.

Collectively, this audience represented expertise across transportation infrastructure, cyber-physical systems, advanced analytics, human behavior, and other specialties that, when combined, have the power to inform and execute decision-making at the city-scale. The day’s discussions brainstormed a few places to start, such as strategies to introduce fully electric fleets of public buses, further advancing contactless payment methods, simplifying multi-modal journey planning into one app, finding opportunities to combine passenger and freight transportation, and, of course, autonomous everything.

If this convening is any indication of the future of innovation, then it seems to be heading in the direction that Rikesh and Molly hope for with collaboration being a driving force.