Survey: How transport leaders see the sector
If you were at the Forum this year, you may have encountered one of the hosting staff wielding handheld computers and asking questions about transport and innovation. This was the Forum survey team, taking the pulse of transport's elite assembled in Leipzig. Not a full-blown scientific field study, to be sure, but the figures gathered from 169 respondents provide an interesting glimpse at how transport leaders think about their sector.
One particularly interesting result: 43% of respondents feel that transport is more innovative than other industries - although one in four is more sceptical and sees transport lagging. Among the transport modes, road is seen as the least innovative: 53% think that way, and about half as many (27%) place rail at the bottom of the list. The greatest challenge to transport is seen in reducing emissions (43%) followed by improving efficiency (22%), which are both clearly linked. Reducing congestion and road fatalities are also seen as major challenges, while few worry about infrastructure investment (6%).
Technology is seen as the main driver of innovation in transport (44%), but service (28%) and the regulatory environment (27%) are by no means seen as negligible factors. Asked to estimate the market share for electric vehicles in 2020, as an indicator for progress in implementing transport innovations, a broad range of views emerged. One in four (25%) of respondents is sceptical and believes the share will not reach 5% in ten years' time. But only slightly fewer respondents (20%) see it above 20% in 2020. The relative majority (34%) foresees a market share for electric vehicles between 5 and 10% by 2020.