This article originally appeared in the World Economic Forum on March 24, 2025.
Urban mobility planning is shifting. While cities must provide affordable, sustainable and efficient transportation, a growing number are also prioritizing new technologies, from electric vehicles to air taxis, to reach their mobility goals.
The cities that embrace innovation and consistently invest in infrastructure top the sixth annual Urban Mobility Readiness Index. The research, from the Oliver Wyman Forum and University of California at Berkeley, uses 71 key performance indicators to rank 70 cities globally on how well they are prepared for the evolving transportation landscape. This year’s edition prioritizes innovation and adds a new technology adoption sub-index to assess how prepared a city is to embrace technologies like AI, autonomous vehicles and air taxis.
San Francisco claimed the top overall ranking for the first time since 2022 thanks to its proximity to Silicon Valley, use of cutting-edge mobility technologies and focus on improving fundamentals like public transit access. Three cities – San Francisco, Singapore and Helsinki – serve as role models in using AI, making green energy a priority and preparing for self-driving vehicles and air taxis.
Use AI to enhance public transit
Mass transit is by far the most affordable and sustainable way to travel, and commuter traffic keeps growing as the post-COVID rebound continues. Singapore, which tops the 2024 public transit sub-index, reached 93.5% of pre-pandemic ridership levels in 2023, as reported by the Straits Times. And while the city-state invests in the fundamentals, like a 360-kilometre rail extension to be completed by the early 2030s, it also employs new AI and autonomous solutions in its public transit systems.
One Singaporean public transit operator opened an innovation centre in June 2024 to convene business, academics and government agencies to strengthen mass transit networks. The centre already produced generative AI add-ons in some public transit stations, including an assistant that can translate spoken and written words into sign language and a chatbot that can help passengers with travel queries.
These technologies can encourage public transit ridership and help cities accommodate growing demand. Forty-six percent of consumers on average reported riding on bus, subway or rail in November 2024, according to an Oliver Wyman Forum survey of 16,700 consumers across 17 countries. That’s up from a 42% average in October 2023.
Power sustainable mobility with green energy
Even with a healthy modal mix of electric vehicles, public transit and micromobility, most cities cannot achieve their climate goals without a low-carbon energy grid, according to Oliver Wyman Forum analysis.
While Finland's capital Helsinki leads this edition’s sustainable mobility sub-index in part due to comprehensive financial benefits available for EV shoppers, car-free zones, advanced cycling infrastructure and modern rail network, the Finnish capital is doubling down on carbon-neutral energy. A local energy company is investing in a first-of-its-kind green hydrogen production plant in Helsinki. What makes this plant uniquely energy-efficient is that the hydrogen is produced with wind and solar power, and waste heat generated in the production process will be used in Helsinki’s heating network.
This project is one facet of Finland’s growing push to bring more collaborators to what it sees as a blooming energy market: A Helsinki agency projects the hydrogen market will reach roughly $250 billion by 2030, rising more than 7% annually from 2022. In 2023, the government also launched an organization to support and attract investments in research and innovation in the hydrogen and battery industries.
Prepare for self-driving vehicles and air taxis
Cities should consider using new technologies to address climate change and make mobility services more affordable and accessible. Robo-taxis, for example, have the potential to lower ride-hailing costs; autonomous trains and buses can make public transit more efficient; and air taxis may alleviate road traffic.
San Francisco, like other leading cities, employs a “sandbox” approach to policy-making that encourages innovation by permitting mobility providers to test their technologies on city streets. In August 2023, the city allowed commercial robotaxi operations for the first time. Meanwhile, some companies have announced plans to open air mobility networks that could bring electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft to San Francisco by the end of 2025. Proposed networks may connect cities across the Bay Area, including south San Francisco, Napa, Oakland, San Jose and Livermore, aiming to reduce travel times to 10 to 20 minutes, down from one to two hours by car.
Other cities also are deploying these technologies. In 2024, Shanghai granted four permits to companies to pick up passengers with robotaxis, while an air taxi service began commercial operations. Beijing similarly granted permits to several robotaxi providers to route between urban areas and Beijing Daxing International Airport.
Cities won’t simply fall behind if they don’t embrace new technologies – they also may miss out on growth coming to the mobility industry. Advanced driver assistance systems and air taxi sectors are set to reach combined revenues of $314.8 billion by 2035, according to an Oliver Wyman Forum analysis. That’s a meteoric rise from combined 2023 revenues of $1.7 billion.