Workshop 4 report: Optimising the impact of technological innovation on achieving sustainable public transport outcomes

Under the workshop's theme of optimising the impact of technological innovation on achieving sustainable public transport outcomes a total of 7 papers were presented and discussed and participants also completed a public transport contract “experiment”, taking the role of operators and authorities. The experiment benefited from having C-suite level representatives from both sides at the negotiation table with consultants and academics providing advisory support. Following an initial discussion on definitions relevant to sustainable transport outcomes and a recognition of how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our perspective on sustainability, papers were grouped into three themes to cover various perspectives on the impact of technological innovation on achieving sustainable public transport outcomes – authorities, operators and consumers/end-users. We developed several areas for further research including a requirement for a global benchmarking framework for sustainable transport outcomes and a need to better understand the right balance of uncertainty in innovation. There were also several policy recommendations such as the encouragement of greater sharing of data, information and best practice in sustainable (urban) mobility. This will be facilitated by more flexibility in contracts to allow new technology to be effectively deployed to measure and incentivise sustainable outcomes in public transport service delivery.