Megacities on the move presents four vivid scenarios exploring exploring how population growth, the energy we use, the strength or weakness of global institutions and other factors will shape our cities in 2040 and the way we access goods, services, information and other people. They have been brought to life in animations created by Grain Media. View the full report for more detail on each scenario.
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/projects/megacities-on-the-move
Planned-opolis - In a world of fossil fuels and expensive energy, the only solution is tightly planned and controlled urban transport.
http://www.forumforthefuture.org/projects/megacities-on-the-move
Planned-opolis - In a world of fossil fuels and expensive energy, the only solution is tightly planned and controlled urban transport.
Sprawl-ville - The city is dominated by fossil fuel-powered cars. The elite still gets around, but most urban dwellers face poor transport infrastructure.
Renew-abad - The world has turned to alternative energy and high-tech, clean, well-planned transport helps everyone get around.
Communi-city - The world has turned to alternative energy, and transport is highly personalised with a huge variety of transport modes competing for road space.
For the first time in history more than half the world’s population is living in towns and cities. We passed this milestone in 2008 and by 2040 two in three people are expected to live in urban environments.
Urbanisation presents us with a wealth of new opportunities and huge challenges. It has the potential to further economic development and innovation, but also threatens to exacerbate key global problems, including resource depletion, climate change, and inequality.
Megacities on the move sets out to find solutions to one of the biggest challenges – how billions of city-dwellers can access what they need without putting intolerable strains on the planet. It focuses on how to achieve sustainable urban mobility, looking at all the ways in which people will access goods, services and information and make contact with each other. It goes beyond transport to consider ICT solutions, innovative urban design and much more.
Forum for the Future, working in partnership with Vodafone, the FIA Foundation andEMBARQ, has produced a practical toolkit to help public bodies, companies and civil society organisations understand and plan for the mobility challenges of the future. It is designed to encourage action now and stimulate innovative products and services.
We have created four scenarios exploring urban mobility in the year 2040, taking into account resource shortages, climate change, demographic trends and other major factors which will shape our future, and drawing on interviews with more than 40 experts from around the world.
We chose this year because urban infrastructure is generally planned, built and used over decades. Looking at the challenges we may face in 30 years provides enough time to plan for and deliver a whole new generation of more sustainable solutions.
You can download the toolkit as one document or in the separate sections below.
You can use this section to introduce your colleagues, business partners and clients to the issues. It explains why it is important to start planning for the future and reviews the major factors which will shape the world in the next 30 years, exploring how they will affect urban mobility.
Want to explore what the future may hold and test your strategy? Our scenarios present four possible visions of urban mobility in the world of 2040. They are a tool to help understand what the future may hold for your organisation, and to plan ahead more effectively.
We have brought the scenarios to life in four short, vivid and compelling animations. They follow a day in the life of an ordinary woman, examining the mobility challenges and solutions in each world.
If you want to bring innovation into your strategic planning, here are actions you can take now to help create sustainable urban mobility systems. This section includes practical examples of how these solutions are already being put into practice around the world.
This section gives specific guidance on how to plan a workshop using the four scenarios. They show how you can use the scenarios to explore future urban mobility issues relevant to you, and develop more sustainable products, services and strategies.
Chris Dewey, Associate
Rupert Fausset, Principal Strategic Advisor
Ivana Gazibara, Senior Strategic Advisor
James Goodman, Head of Futures
Peter Madden, CEO
Contact For more information about the project, or if you would like assistance using the scenarios, please contact Ivana Gazibara, megacitiesonthemove@forumforthefuture.org, +44 (0)207 324 3673
Rupert Fausset, Principal Strategic Advisor
Ivana Gazibara, Senior Strategic Advisor
James Goodman, Head of Futures
Peter Madden, CEO
Contact For more information about the project, or if you would like assistance using the scenarios, please contact Ivana Gazibara, megacitiesonthemove@forumforthefuture.org, +44 (0)207 324 3673
