Picture: Independent
We spoke with Thomas Ableman, Director of Innovation at TfL, about the exciting new upcoming projects at TfL and what we can expect to hear at MOVE: Mobility Reimagined in June.
Sustainable mobility innovations within the public transport sector play a key part in decreasing carbon emissions across the city. London still faces huge challenges around congestion and air quality, therefore, creating various solutions to tackle increasing emissions is a giant step the mobility industry must take.
“The need has never been stronger for change, with the climate crises now much more widely acknowledged, the mobility industry has the most enormous role to play” said Ableman
“Transport is the one area of the economy where carbon emissions have not fallen in the last 30 years. Therefore, that is where we need innovative solutions and ideas, not just to decarbonise our sector, but to ensure that collectively, the entire mobility industry, including car travel, is making a contribution”
TfL has planned consultations to expand the Ultra-Low Carbon emissions around London. This project is part of many challenges the Mayor of London and TfL wish to tackle, such as improving air quality and health, tackling the climate crisis, and reducing travel congestion.
Thomas commented saying, “this is incredibly exciting; London has a very long-standing tradition of leading the way in different forms of producer charging. For example, the congestion charge in the city center and charging for high emission vehicles. London still has huge challenges around congestion and huge challenges around air quality, so expanding the Ultra-Low Emission Zone feels like a hugely important step.”
Thomas is speaking on ‘creating a world-class innovation culture in a world-leading transport authority’ at MOVE 2022 and will also be making an appearance on a panel about ‘fostering an ecosystem of public-private partnerships’ alongside London Firsts, Adam Tyndall, and Matthias Mallik from Mercedes Benz.
‘I’ll be talking about TfL’s long tradition of innovation, and the work we are doing at the moment, to look at innovation in a changing market and a changing landscape that we find ourselves in. Also, how we make sure that TfL maintains that innovation going forward.”
MOVE is a great opportunity for the mobility industry to come together. Ableman commented: “MOVE is important so that the ecosystem can all balance off each other. We need input from others, and we have things we can share.”
Our MOVE event will see the topic of public transport arise in various panels/presentations across the course of the two days. We have panels/ presentations on:
- ‘Towards a world of zero emission public transport’
- ‘How battery tech has evolved from public transport through to commercial vehicles’
- ‘The role of public transport in boosting the economies of future smart cities’
- ‘How public transport makes cities more liveable’
These are only a few of our incredible items on the agenda that will be appearing alongside Thomas, so make sure you don’t miss out!
https://www.terrapinn.com/exhibition/move/tickets.stm
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