TOMI was present in the 4th Mob Lab Congress

On the 6th of July, the TOMI team was present at the 4th edition of the Mob Lab Congress, in Porto. In this congress, several themes about mobility were addressed.

Issues that deserved great attention such as management of mobility at the level of local government; the allocation of financial resources; urban logistics and sustainability; the transition processes for automobile electro-mobile; what will change in transports in cities in post-covid; road safety and improvement; the role of the railroad; the impact of the technologies, such as 5G, on cities, blockchain and mobility and what to expect from emerging technologies; highways and urban mobility and paths to decarbonization and sustainability; the challenges of energy transition in mobility, the hydrogen challenge; the resilience of cities and the elements for change; and what citizens say about urban mobility about current and future behavior. These themes were addressed by various entities present, from municipal decision-makers to companies specializing in mobility and technology associated with the major challenges of transformation.

TOMI had an extremely relevant role, presenting the results of the TOMI Survey on mobility, elaborated in partnership with Mob Lab. This survey was taking place at TOMIs, in some cities of Portugal. The main focus of the questionnaire was to obtain the opinion of the citizens of Portugal on mobility, in Portugal and in its cities, identifying the general profile of the use of means of transport, and preferences and relevant factors for the citizens to take on the transition process of the current paradigm.

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Through this survey, we obtain very interesting and useful results for understanding the behavior of citizens and aspects they consider most relevant in their daily lives, in terms of mobility. The sample consisted of 190 participants. As the main facts of the study, we highlight: the participants prefer the car (n=87), with the bus being the least used means of transport (n=4). The bicycle was considered the third most used means of transport by the participants (n=33). When asked what could be improved, in each municipality, in terms of mobility, the most mentioned (n=90) was the improvement of cycle paths, followed by the increase in the frequency of transport schedules (n=68), and a better articulation between rail and other public transport methods of choice by the participants (n=89). In this survey, we can conclude that participants could adopt another type of mobility due to growing environmental concerns (n=103).

As a major conclusion of this study, we can say that Portugal has a mobility profile very similar to most countries, usually referred to as western countries, with large car use, which in the Portuguese case is closely linked to the lack of effective public transport alternatives. Changing the current mobility paradigm may be motivated by environmental sustainability, to which the survey participants showed great sensitivity. Thus, a window of opportunity for a transition can be opened, provided that it is made taking into account the country’s public resources and purchasing power and socio-economic profile.