Rethinking Future Urban Mobility: The Central Role of Public Transport and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Rapid urbanization, rising car dependence, congestion, pollution, and inefficient use of vehicles and urban space demand a fundamental rethinking of future mobility. This presentation examines how transport research can respond by placing public transport at the center of technological and theoretical development. It first traces the evolution of transportation theory from static explanatory models toward “living theory”: models that continuously learn, update, adapt, and improve through data and artificial intelligence. Drawing on a comparative three-year study, the presentation then reviews road traffic impacts across 19 countries and compares public transport with private cars in 17 cities. The findings demonstrate the often underestimated competitiveness of public transport and the potential of shared automated services to reduce the number of vehicles required. The presentation argues that automation should prioritize public transport rather than private cars, supported by international standardization. Finally, it examines how AI can improve demand prediction, fleet management, multimodal coordination, policy evaluation, and equitable access, while addressing data integrity, bias, accountability, and trust.

Biography

Avishai (Avi) Ceder is Professor Emeritus at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. He founded the Transportation Research Centre at the University of Auckland and directed it until 2014. He formerly headed the Transportation Engineering and Geo-Information Department at the Technion, served as Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Transport from 1994 to 1997, and represented Israel in the European Community Transport Program. He was twice a visiting professor at MIT and held visiting appointments at the University of California, Berkeley, and universities in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

His book, Public Transit Planning and Operation: Modeling, Practice and Behavior, second edition (CRC Press, 2016), was translated into Chinese (2017) and Korean (2018). His honors include the inaugural Best Paper Award at CASPT 2022 and a Lifetime Contribution Award from the Transportation Research Board in 2024. As of October 2026, he has published 228 journal articles.