Our Work
Personal Mobility
Personal transport is being disrupted everyday by new business models (Uber, Lyft), changing attitudes of young people to car ownership, population growth in urban areas and the possibility of autonomous vehicles.
Approaches to transportation taken 50 years ago seem outdated and out of sync with our modern needs. But whether any of these disruptions contribute to resolving problems like air emissions, congestion, and high personal transport costs remains to be seen. And with transportation contributing 27 per cent to Canada’s GHG emissions there is an opportunity to direct this disruption towards less carbon-intensive approaches. Ideally, the future of personal mobility will see less traffic, less accidents, more convenience and, if done right, less emissions.
The Accelerator is working to define the pathways that can speed up electrification of personal vehicles—as part of integrated transport solutions—and influencing the longer-term deployment of autonomous vehicles. Exploring these pathways can also open new economic opportunities in future vehicle and battery manufacturing potential that draw on Canada’s comparative advantage.
Latest
To meet climate goals, we can’t leave autonomous vehicles on autopilot
Autonomous vehicles have come to play a major role in many visions of the transportation future, with car companies, tech companies, and policymakers all proposing their own versions of a self-driving future.
Report: Thinking about the future of autonomous vehicles
This report explores whether we should support the rapid introduction of autonomous vehicles in the hope that they will unlock changes in the mobility system that facilitate more low-carbon travel or be more cautious on the ground that they might make things worse.
News Release: New Report Recommends Paradigm Shift in Approach to Tackling Climate Change
Reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions will require major changes in the large-scale systems we use to meet societal needs, such as the way we produce and distribute energy or move people and goods.
Report – Pathways to Net Zero: A Decision Support Tool
The purpose of this report is to provide a simple tool to help those concerned with policy and
investment decisions to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in Canada.
Blog – The Transformation of Canadian Personal Mobility: Some Lessons from History
A careful reading of Canadian transportation history gives some clues for how we might achieve a more sustainable transportation system during the twenty-first century.
Report – The Rise Of The Automobile: Lessons From Historical Canadian Transportation Transitions
This paper examines the experience of an earlier transition in land transport that saw the rapid adoption of the automobile.
Report: Mobility as a service in Quebec
This report lists the different mobility services that exist in Quebec, in particular for car sharing, personal vehicle sharing and fleets of self-service cars.
Rapport sur les entretiens effectués aux Îles-De-La-Madeleine
The Magdalen Islands project aims to significantly reduce the environmental impact on the Islands, in particular by modifying the way people get around.
Propositions de scénarios pour une évolution des modes de transport aux Îles-De-La-Madeleine
This study aims to improve personal mobility at the Îles-de-la-Madeleine in a context of addressing climate change.