McKinsey & Company presented the final analysis of successful urban transport systems around the world

Today McKinsey & Company presented their report Elements of success: Urban transportation systems of 24 global cities. The purpose of the study that lasted three months was a comprehensive assessment of urban transport systems in terms of both objective indicators and perceptions of inhabitants. Experts from McKinsey carried out a comparative analysis of 24 cities from around the world against five aspects that influence the quality of life: accessibility of infrastructure, affordability, efficiency, convenience and safety of various modes of transportation.

The study helped to single out 10 megacities with the most developed systems of urban transportation: Singapore, Paris, Hong Kong, London, Madrid, Moscow, Chicago, Seoul, New York, and Milan.

“The rating drawn based on objective indicators has no clear winner. Even the leading cities both strong and relatively weak sides,” says Vadim Pokotilo, partner of Mckinsey & Company, head of the McKinsey expert group on urban transport.

The following conclusions among the other results of the study are interesting.

• The quality of the transportation system depends not only on the level of the city’s welfare and investments, but also on the availability of a strategy and consistency in its implementation;
• The inhabitants of all cities included in the analysis are more satisfied with the system of public transportation rather than personal transport. In most cities, the use of personal transport remains a major problem for citizens, and only in 5 out of 24 cities the proportion of residents satisfied with the possibility of using personal transport is higher than 50%;
• City residents and experts consider safety to be the most important aspect of the transportation system.

“We certainly observe global patterns of urban population: they are generally satisfied with the current trends: the development of rail transport, the increasing level of comfort of rides and transfers. People also highly appreciate the changes associated with new technologies: the convenience of electronic services, ticket systems and shared membership,” says Stefan Knupfer, senior partner at McKinsey, who leads McKinsey’s Sustainable Resources and Productivity Practice. At the same time, he says, such issues as traffic intensity, affordability and environmental safety get a lot of public attention.

Within the framework of a study conducted between February and April of this year, McKinsey’s team collected and analyzed 95 different indicators, launched surveys among the population of 24 cities and interviewed more than 30 experts from around the world.

We hope that the report will be useful and will help the city authorities, transport agencies and carriers in identifying their priorities and making the right strategic decisions.

You can view the report here.