Mobility

In EGGS Design, we have throughout the years worked with several different mobility related projects and clients. What they all have in common is that they focus on urban areas. Areas that are densely populated, have “short” travel distances, high route frequency, high-priority area for public transport and mobility services and last but not least, it’s an area of great business potential.


In the Pilot-T project (that will last for another 2 years), with Widerøe Zero Air Mobilty Lab, we focus on the exact opposite – rural areas. Rural areas, in contrast to urban areas, have low population density, long travel distances, poor environmentally friendly transport options, low route frequency, complicated interaction and high ticket prices.

Rural areas – an underserved mobility market

 is an arena for open innovation and user engagement to co-create future solutions for air mobility in Norwegian regions. The concept itself is based on living-lab methodology. The way Air Mobility Lab facilitates user-centric innovation is quite radical in the otherwise conservative international aviation industry.

 Widerøe primarly operates with small propeller aircrafts to meet transport and mobility needs in District Norway. These flights are of great importance to business, healthcare, education, tourism and culture in these regions. Our role in the Pilot-T project, as part of bigger innovation partnership, is to map out today’s user needs, pains and challenges related to public transport and air mobility in general, but also dig into mindset, thoughts, and trust towards future mobility concepts.  (Image credits: Widerøe)

During the Pilot-T project, and through collaboration and partnership with four coastal regions in Norway, we have been looking into different mobility scenarios and challenges.

From a design perspective, and through the lenses of social responsibility, introducing 

 (electrical take-off and landing aircrafts) as a potential solution to rural mobility challenges, opens up an enormous opportunity space. eVTOL has, in a way no other means of transport has, the potential to deliver enormous value and to increasing the quality of life for people living along the Norwegian coastline and in rural areas in general.

eVTOL

eVTOL as a potential solution to rural mobility challenges

In landscapes that are dominated by mountains and fjords the access to effective public transportation is extremely limited and has poor connections. Despite distances often being short as the crow flies, in real life, a trip from one town to another might take many hours and even involve an overnight stay. Needless to say, this can be costly for the person who needs to travel.

Lack of efficient public transport results in inaccessibility

In the example above to get from the small town to the city you have a few options: 1) The bus has seven departures a day, but takes almost five hours each way.2)  The ferry travels over a shorter distance, but is slow and still takes 4 hours. The ferry also only has two departures a day. 3) Driving a car offers flexibility and efficiency, but still takes three and a half hours, and is the worst environmental option (if using fossil fuel). 4) Travel by plane takes two hours from door to door. It’s the fastest option, but, it’s also the priciest option. And, like the ferry, there’s only two departures a day which limits the flexibility for the user.

eVTOL offers the fastest travel option of them all. In the example below, it would in this case take less than one hour, door to door. It’s also the only zero-emission alternative (yes, we are seeing electrification for both buses, cars and ferries – but in most parts of district Norway, fossil fuel is still widely used). And eVTOL is the only option that can depart on-demand and according to user needs, in the same way that a car can. 

What if we introduce eVTOL as an option?

Another interesting perspective is looking at travel-efficiency. By that I mean, how much of the total travel time is spent on actual movement from A to B.
The plane option is actually fastest – with an airtime of 25 minutes between airports. But it takes two hours in total due to travel back and forth to the airport, airport security, transit time, boarding etc. So even if an aircraft flies at a higher speed than an eVTOL, eVTOL would still be a faster option for short distance flight due to travel-efficiency.

The opportunity space that emerges by introducing eVTOL paves the way for disrupting todays air mobility. By combining the travel-efficiency of cars and taxis with the speed of planes. For short-distance travel, eVTOLs can offer the most efficient means of transportation, with minimal time wasted on anything other than moving from A to B, and without any rivals. Together with a solid infrastructure of vertiports, it disrupts today’s air mobility by flying you from where you are, to where you want to go.

Is Air Mobility as public transport a disruptive innovation or illusion?

One lens is to look at eVTOL through the “four drivers of change”: Economy, technology, society and environments. All drivers that issues challenges where eVTOL will have a solid impact. 

Another lense is to look at the most important drivers and trends within mobility, which are:


By looking at these trends, today’s challenges, and by seeing the potential impact and value realisation possible through eVTOL as a public transportation alternative – the answer if you ask me is an unwavering yes.

With the timing and combination of emerging technology, trends, drivers and societal needs – I believe we are on the verge of a paradigme shift within Air Mobility.

In rural areas this would mean more equal access to services and, ultimately, contribute to making remote areas mor attractive to live.

Air Mobility as public transport - disruptive innovation or illusion?