Bill Ford discusses future mobility at World Congress
Bill Ford discusses future mobility at World Congress
Bill Ford’s thoughts on the future of mobility may be a surprise to many as he told delegates about his concerns over what he termed ‘Global Gridlock’. “You can’t just keep on sending more vehicles into the urban environment, it isn’t going to work.”
September 8, 2014
Read time: 2 mins
Bill Ford Executive Chairman of Ford
Bill Ford’s thoughts on the future of mobility may be a surprise to many as he told delegates about his concerns over what he termed ‘Global Gridlock’. “You can’t just keep on sending more vehicles into the urban environment, it isn’t going to work.”
278 Ford’s executive chairman said the current model of urban mobility was under threat and believes it is imperative that in future all transportation modes are interconnected as that is the only way to cope with a growing population in an increasingly urbanised world. However, he said: “Cities are struggling with transportation today and will do so even more in the future and often the money isn’t there to fix the infrastructure – even if they knew how to fix it.
“We need to redefine mobility for the coming century… but there is no one single silver bullet,” he said, adding that many of the individual ‘building blocks’ have been developed but they must be seamlessly integrated.
When it comes to connected vehicle technology he highlighted major challenges that remain with privacy and bringing the often less tech-savvy older generation on board, saying: “We can’t afford to leave anybody behind.”
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has recreated its Southeast Michigan Traffic Management Center (Booth: 2027) at 2014 ITS World Congress. The center is recognised as one of the most innovative TMCs in the U.S., having to deal with a complex multi-modal transportation network on the border of Canada.
