San Francisco Tops ‘Urban Mobility Readiness’ List

An analysis from the Oliver Wyman Forum and the University of California, Berkeley ranks San Francisco at the top of its Urban Mobility Readiness Index, which assesses “how well people and goods can move through a city and to surrounding population centers.”

As Magdalena Del Valle explains in Bloomberg CityLab, “Other cities in the top five, including Paris, Munich and Amsterdam, saw robust public transportation systems and strong universities that collaborate successfully with the private sector.”

The analysis looks at dozens of metrics related to sustainability, public transit, and technology. Singapore ranked first in public transit, while Helsinki led in sustainable mobility.

According to del Valle, a heightened focus on technology in this year’s analysis pushed U.S. cities to the top of the list despite their poor performance in public transit and bike and pedestrian infrastructure ratings. “San Francisco, which landed in 24th place in public transit and 18th in sustainable mobility, scored points for its EV adoption and the infrastructure it is working to set up for air taxis. Similarly, New York rose to eighth place from 12th last year, and Boston and Los Angeles made it into the top 15.”