Innovating in a global city

ABSTRACT

Transport plays a key role in shaping the future of a city and that is no different in London. Currently, nearly 30 million trips are made in the Capital of the United Kingdom each day whether it’s on the Tube network which carries nearly 5 million people, the 9,300 buses which transports 7 million Londoners or the other modes of transport including rail or tram services, or the active forms of transport such as cycling or walking. This illustrates the importance of transport to keep London working and growing.

KEYWORDS:

• Cities innovation innovators

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Sources

https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/mayors-transport-strategy-2018.pdf

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-the-world-s-first-subway-system-was-built-christian-wolmar

https://tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2018/december/tfl-marks-the-150th-anniversary-of-the-traffic-light

http://content.tfl.gov.uk/deloitte-report-tfl-open-data.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/future-of-mobility-call-for-evidence/future-of-mobility-call-for-evidence

https://techround.co.uk/guides/london-startups-2019/

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rikesh Shah

Rikesh Shah leads Transport for London’s market innovation activity to transform the creation of new value for London by working with start-ups, corporates, academia, accelerators and venture capitalists. He was responsible for creating TfL’s first Innovation Hub which is charged with setting out the organisation’s key problem statements, bringing in the best innovators from across the world, piloting and scaling innovative solutions with the potential to commercialise, as well as establishing the right culture in the company focusing on agility and design thinking to work with market innovators who either have a new mobility product or an innovative idea to help solve an existing city challenge through new technologies. Rikesh was previously responsible for TfL’s world leading open data programme which has 17,000 registered users, 700 apps powered by TfL data used by 42% of Londoners which an independent review stated that it’s worth to London is £130m per annum. Rikesh sits on the Smart London Board to deliver the Mayor of London’s vision to make London the smartest city in the world. He also is an Advisor at DotEveryone which focuses on Tech for Good, and Chicago’s City Tech Collaborative which focuses on urban mobility innovation in the US.