Urban Mobility: Helping Cities Create the Bus Systems of the Future

The World Resources Institute (WRI) is helping mega cities accelerate residents’ transition from private cars to high quality, sustainable public transportation solutions. Concentrated research and pilot activities have scaled to support more than 50 cities and 13M+ people to date. Projects have led to more reliable commutes, less congestion, safer practices and avoidance of over 820,000 metric tons of CO2.

Some of our recent projects include:

• Sharing best practices in Brazil: Through the QualiÔnibus best practices network, WRI Brazil helps cities share approaches to increase ridership and sustainable practices. Examples include low-cost safety solutions like “blind spot” stickers that substantially reduce collisions and increase rider confidence, and new revenue models that raise funds for new electric bus fleets.
• Accelerating sustainable transport in China: WRI piloted an on-demand mobility app in China’s two most populous cities: Beijing and Guangzhou. The app helped more than 10 million users reduce CO2 emissions by 100,000 tons and helped 21% of users switch from private automobile to a sustainable transport mode.
• Deploying post-pandemic incentives in India: In response to significant decreases in ridership due to the pandemic, WRI-India helped incentivize a safe return to public transit through a contactless ticket system. Used by 800,000 customers in its first year, the initiative helped the city regain more than 45% of pre-pandemic ridership.

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