We’ve got to move!

Mobility is a key part of citizenship in democracies worldwide. It brings not only big opportunities for innovation but also enormous challenges for the civil society. In a series of encounters named “Communication for Mobility Lab”, Aberje brought together communication professionals, urbanists, activists, traffic engineers, architects, public policies formulators and the car industry representatives to discuss the theme with the sponsorship of GM Brazil.

“Mobility is the main issue in big cities like São Paulo”, explains journalist Leão Serva, curator of the Lab. “The image we have is the image given to us by the media. In this context, communication is the most critical aspect, albeit not visible”, he adds. The three sessions reviewed a broad range of issues such as public policies and communication strategies for future cities mobility; innovation, citizenship and technology; the use of smartphones and apps that help people move around, and intermodal use. “Between 1994 and 2013, there was an increase of 162% in the use of cars as the main means of transportation, 1093% increase in the use of motorcycles and a decrease of 39% in the use of bicycles”, said Daniel Guth, mobility consultant on a conference.

The last meeting happened at a very special place, the Sao Paulo International Motor Show 2016, where the public was invited to share their thoughts on the theme “Ways Out”. Paulo Nassar, President of Aberje and professor at ECA-USP welcomed the visitors and highlighted the legacy of knowledge left by the Lab. “Good communication is vital for well-succeeded solutions in mobility”, he said.

“We aim to become a mobility solution provider, not only a car company”, says Nelson Silveira, Director of Communication for GM Brazil. “One way of doing that is investing in ride-sharing services such as Lyft, and car-sharing, with Maven. The current model of owning a vehicle is changing. Today, our business model is based on how many cars we sell; this is going to change to how many kilometres our clients drive our cars”, he declares.