Better Mobility. Better Lives.

    The world’s population has reached a unique tipping point. In 2008 for the first time in human history the global population became comprised of more urban dwellers than rural dwellers.

    Currently 50% of the world’s population lives in sprawling cities where issues such as air and water pollution, traffic congestion, poor public transportation, sanitation problems, increased energy demands, inadequate housing, and poor public health present enormous challenges to city governments.

    Cities are Central to Human Progress

    Cities have always been where people from all walks of life have come together to pursue business and participate in culture, entertainment, education, healing and enlightenment. They have sought to reach a common understanding in a place of great diversity. Cities are where man has always come to build the tallest buildings and cathedral spires, the greatest universities, the most powerful machines. Even when cities had walls around them, their possibilities remained boundless. The same still holds true for today’s cities.

    But limits are beginning to emerge. Cities continue to disturb the delicate balance between our demand for city infrastructure and its impacts on fragile ecosystems. For cities to advance in forecasted geometric terms over the next hundred years, we will need to meet the challenges of providing clean water and air, non-polluting energy, and freedom of mobility.

    Urban Spaces Need Solutions Beyond Cars

    Despite our best efforts, urban spaces will never be accommodating to cars. Where density of population can reduce consumption of resources, automobile traffic does the opposite, devouring precious acres with highway lanes, parking lots, and gas stations. While cities generate life and creativity by bringing people together, cars create isolation, polluting the air we breathe and consuming a disproportionate amount of energy and space.

    Our commitment is to provide public transportation that allows people to drive less or not at all, in order to restore urban land to productive purposes and make daily life easier and more enjoyable for the people who live there.

    Following are a few locations where we are pursuing that goal:

    • San Diego. Sprinter commuter trains speed alongside freeways, allowing commuters to read and relax, passing their automobile-bound fellow travelers who have little to do but stare at the bumper ahead.
    • Nice, France. Quiet, electric light rail vehicles, drawing power from the street below rather than unsightly wires above, run down grassy malls beneath canopies of trees in the city’s downtown center of commerce, tourism, and culture. Bus lines with tightly coordinated schedules act as “feeders” to the trains. Together they bring people from the farthest reaches of the area into the core of the city with ease, as well as to high-speed trains that travel all over France.
    • Las Vegas. What happens in Las Vegas – along with it being one of the nation’s top tourist spots – is the Deuce service, a London-style double-deck bus that carries full loads of people up and down the “strip.” The Deuce takes the place of thousands of additional automobiles that would further overwhelm Las Vegas’s congested main thoroughfare.
    • Washington, DC. SuperShuttle vans provide affordable, shared ride service to the three metropolitan airports—trips that would have otherwise taken place in cars occupying highway lanes, urban streets, and additional airport parking spaces.
    • York Region, Ontario. Sleek, low-floor articulated buses run to the end-points of Toronto’s subway system, and are already responsible for more than a 30% increase in people converting from car to bus in the corridors in which the Viva bus rapid transit network operates.

    Our Approach

    Veolia Transportation’s approach to cities and quality of life does not stop with the traditional public transit modes. We have developed a bicycle rental program to provide yet another option for people to easily move around cities. At rail stations and transit hubs, bicycles offer a “last-mile” solution, offering a way to get to locations that are not immediately served by public transit, but are traditionally not accessible without a car.

    Our approach is also about information—informing people how to ride our transportation systems and making the process as easy as possible. We design and erect clear, intuitive signage, and are pioneers in cell-phone based information systems, such as text messages that tell people when the next bus or train is coming and mobile phone ticketing.

    And our approach is about sustainable mobility—transport that makes a net positive contribution to the environment. We do this by taking people out of their cars (thus reducing CO2 emitted from their vehicles) and by reducing the CO2 from our vehicles and facilities. We are part of a leading global environmental solutions company, and are committed to measuring and reducing our carbon footprint, as well as the footprint of the passengers we transport.

    We look at the cities we serve today and the ones we will serve in the future as centers of civilization – where people will always strive to push the boundaries of what is possible. We are committed to helping them get there with transportation solutions that enhance the enjoyment and possibilities of life, and ensure that the future of our cities remains bright and limitless.