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01 Sep 2021 | 6 min read
“Happiness is only real when shared”. Many scientific analyses reveal the existence of a positive correlation between social relationships and biological markers of longevity. Studies of behavioral and psychological mechanisms have shown that lack of social connections increases the odds of death by at least 50% (1). On the other hand, an efficient mobility system in a city is directly proportional to the ability to participate in society. If the mobility system is effective and pleasant, it results easier to maintain our connections.
In simple terms, human beings are social animals. We need to connect with people to be healthy, and we can rely on a variety of digital innovative technologies to make our mobility easy-breezy.
Many of us are not even aware of why and how digital mobility can improve our daily life. So, here is the deal: you are about to find this out.
Nowadays, in our hyper-technological world, face-to-face meetings are fundamental. Indeed, many of us emigrate to the big cities to work and study. Commonly, our friends and loved ones live far from us. We can maintain our long-distance relationships quite simply thanks to new technologies such as social networks and video calls.
But chatting on WhatsApp will never be enough.
People spend so much time typing on our phones, and we are all constantly in such a rush that sitting up in a bar with a friend is a true blessing.
Moreover, the current Covid-19 emergency has given a strong acceleration towards the adoption of smart working. Considering we work much more from our houses, and therefore we spend days entirely at home, meeting up in person with our affections is essential.
Humans need more than Zoom calls for building strong relationships.
In addition to that, meetings in person are still crucial for doing business. Surely, emails can accelerate the communicative process in a work environment, but face-to-face communication “builds stronger, more meaningful business relationships”, as said by the 80% of business professionals interrogated during a Forbes Insights survey (3).
Nevertheless, we live in a busy world, there’s no space for extra stress.
After a day sitting in front of a computer, we want to reach our friends’ house with a rapid and enjoyable transit system to groove on that salami pizza watching the football match all together.
But here’s the rub: we might as well enjoy that night at our friends’ place, but how to get there is also important.
“Life is a journey, not a destination”, as the American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once said. And we agree with you Ralph, we rather go watch football at our mates’ comfortably driving a sharing vehicle rather than blindly relying on unknown timetables of public transport systems.
Surely, driving our own car is more enjoyable and relaxing than being on a crowded bus. So, in the case we cannot afford, or simply do not want, to buy a car right now, but we still desire to drive around the city, sharing mobility can be the right trade-off.
The revolution in the mobility market concerns the modernization of traveling by IT advancements. Not only we can pass the costs of vehicle ownership, but we can also reduce traffic jams, carbon dioxide emissions and benefit the environment.
Today, it is estimated that 55% of the global population lives in a city, and the phenomenon is believed to increase exponentially.
Clearly, more people in the cities leads to a rise in congestion. And we all know this is a big issue, anyone can agree on how frustrating it is to be stuck in traffic.
Indeed, there are around one billion vehicles on the roads today, which are estimated to become as many as four billion by 2050 (2).
Our world is changing, and we need to go hand in hand with it. Carbon dioxide emissions are the primary cause of climate change (4). In the EU’s countries, it is estimated that nearly 30% of carbon dioxide emissions come from transport, of which 72% are from road transportation (5).
People sharing the same car leads to fewer cars on the street, which also means healthier air to breathe for us all. So the result is less cars leads to fewer emissions.
It’s that simple: by increasing our use of sharing mobility we become more sustainable to our planet, and we make connectivity an easy game while we enjoy our journey.
However, the future of mobility cannot only rely on sharing vehicles. In order to solve the mobility challenge and tackle city problems, it is necessary that the private and public sectors collaborate and take further actions. We need to progress in the use of the modernization of traveling and its commercialization, through funding and innovative business models as well (6).
As a part of the mobility revolution, it will be increased the use of digital services to deliver mobility solutions. For instance, there is an expected growth in the use of data-driven systems to manage the traffic flow. These innovative systems will work to limit the volume of cars allowed in the city center, while raising the number of buses and taking into consideration factors such as the weather. However, these kinds of systems need to rely on citywide connectivity across mobility (7).
In 2018, a mobile app was panted to find parking spaces via GPS and then show the exact location of the parking lot. To use this app it is necessary to have seamless connectivity across the city in order to save both drivers’ and space providers’ time (8).
Here, we find a key point. Let’s dig a little deeper.
Connections for us humans are critically important, and our means of maintaining them can often be traced back to a system of mobility. On the other hand, it is also the connections themselves that enable mobility. In a reality where the entire city is connected by transport, the mobility system could work efficiently in the prevention of overcrowding and reduction of dead time.
There will not be a new breath of connectivity without the use of digital frontiers of mobility, just as there will be no progress in digital mobility systems without a solid underlying connectivity system.
To satisfy this human’s need and therefore meet up with people, mobility is one of the most powerful tools.
Through digital innovations, mobility is adapting to the new world’s necessities embracing connection worldwide.
Thus, what does all this mean?
If you promised your girlfriend you are going to participate in her family lunch on the other side of the city, you must go with her.
The true meaning of happiness is sharing it with others.
Even so, we recommend you to enjoy the ride to get there thanks to reliable, efficient, and always available mobility services, before having to spend a terrible 8 hours Sunday lunch.
External contributor at 2hire
I love going to live in places where no one knows my name. I prefer nature over cities, books over movies, music over silence.
