Hi #smartcommunity friends! In this episode of The Smart Community Podcast I have another great chat with Beate Kubitz. Beate is a Transport Consultant and Future Mobility Researcher in the UK. I spoke to Beate in both 2020 and 2021, so I am very keen to have her back on the podcast for #mobilitymay to give us an update. In this episode Beate starts by telling us about her background as a transport consultant and her current work in mobility services, what inspired her to launch her sustainable delivery service using carbo bikes, and what a Smart Community means to her. We then discuss the importance of inclusivity in Smart Communities to enhance social mobility, as well as the benefits of both digitising transport and on demand transport, and we then discuss the impacts that changing mobility behaviour can have. Beate then talks more about her cargo bike project and how it has evolved since we last spoke, before she tells us about the work she has been doing with other towns in the UK to integrate cargo bikes. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trends of increased use of e-bikes particularly in public bike share, mobility as a service and more networking planning in the UK. As always, we hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! 

Listen here: 

What we cover in this episode:

• Beate’s background as a transport consultant and work in mobility services, bike share and on demand services 
• What inspired Beate to launch her sustainable delivery service using cargo bikes
• What a Smart Community means to Beate  
• The importance of inclusivity in Smart Communities to enhance social mobility   
• The benefits of digitising transport and on demand transport 
• The large impacts changing mobility behaviour can have  
• More about Beate’s cargo bike project and how it has evolved since she was last on the podcast 
• Beate’s work with other towns in the UK integrating cargo bikes  
• The emerging trends of increased use of e-bikes particularly in public bike share, mobility as a service and more networking planning in the UK  

Quotes: 

“[A Smart Community] is a livable community, it’s a community where people can walk a lot, where people can cycle safely, do many of their errands and chores and go to socialise and meet up. It’s where people have access to the right tool for the job effectively in terms of transport, whether that’s a cargo bike or a really good quality pavement.”

“Although the digital end of things really helps optimise, it helps connectivity, it really improves a lot of things. [But] the bottom line is it has to have the rails to run on, it has to have the infrastructure to enable it.”

“In the UK, I do quite a lot of analysis of population density versus what modes people have available. And it’s kind of disappointing that we have a lot of areas which are slightly less dense, but really don’t have any access to buses, particularly the main form of public transport in the UK, or the form that moves the most people daily from a short walk or distance.”

“We have to remember that we are social animals. So we want to do things together. And if one person in your group has mobility issues, or one person has small kids, but you want to [do an activity] as a group, you have to have things that are completely accessible to everyone.”

“I think that digitization can really help optimise and create services that do envelop and give people all of the transport opportunities. [But] we need to make sure that there are the vehicles and the drivers and the operators there, to be able to ensure that people don’t have to own a car if they don’t really need to.”

“I’m seeing a lot of mobility service projects emerging, lots of really interesting stuff going on in terms of being able to tie things together digitally, on demand being tied to fixed line, and buses, meeting trains, and all of that kind of stuff. Bike Share is expanding, one of the really interesting things that I’ve just been doing is a small piece of work, looking at whether Bike Share should be electrical, mechanical, or mixed.”

“Public transport worldwide is under pressure after COVID. I think acceptance that public transport is a big tool, and the path to net zero is probably one of the important things that we need to see whether it’s happening or not, we need to see it happening in countries worldwide. And enabling people to do it, making sure that the people have access to public transport have access to active travel as well. That’s another massive thing.”

Links: 

Episode 194 and Episode 218 with Beate Kubitz 

Beate’s Website  

Episode E97 with Kylie Nixon 

Episode 292 with Dan Hendry

Connect:

Find the full show notes at: www.mysmart.community 

Connect with Beate via her Website, LinkedIn or Twitter 

Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community  

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube
The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital