It’s fitting that Sustainable Kingston is focusing on sustainable transportation this month as our organization, the Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), hosted the 2nd annual Low-Carbon Smart Mobility Technology Conference from June 17 to 20. As the leading conference in zero emission transit and smart mobility technologies, we aim to educate and mobilize industry champions, transit agencies, and policy makers.

One of the key themes this year that I addressed in my opening remarks, is the importance of sustainable transit for all, regardless of gender, race, religion or creed. At CUTRIC, we believe mobility is a social liberator. Transit is a force of liberation. It gets people to where they need to go to generate wealth, to generate happiness, and to live their lives as they see fit. We know safe and secure mobility and transit services are critical to the safety of women and marginalized communities.

We are in a period of significant social movement, and these movements are pointing to problems that need to be fixed. At CUTRIC, we believe that we’re part of the solution. We believe that transit and shared mobility offer solutions to some of the most critical social, political, and colonial ills of our day. We believe in creating those solutions even when they run against the norms of how things have been done in the past and when it upsets the powers that be or questions the status quo. The future does not need to look like the past, but an alternative reality is not going to come easily either.

Innovation is required to move forward with sustainable transportation for all and electrification of transit will be key to this innovation because it reduces long-term costs and makes transit cheaper, faster and better for cities and everyone included in those cities.

A large portion of our conference focused on electrification of transit. We’ve recently released a report on this topic, funded by Natural Resources Canada, Best Practices and Key Considerations for Transit Electrification and Charging Infrastructure Deployment to Deliver Predictable, Reliable, and Cost-effective Fleet Systems. This report shares our knowledge and experiences with transit electrification with Canadians nation-wide. Electrification and other alternatives to the fossil fuel economy are critical to building Canada’s green economy and for Canada’s place in a 21st century world.

As responsible citizens, whether we are located in Kingston or elsewhere, it’s our duty to innovate transit systems, make them better, faster and green to ensure the next century offers social wealth for all individuals through reliable, accessible and sustainable mobility.

About the Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC): Providing advanced transit technology for all has been the mission of the Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) since 2015. CUTRIC is a member-driven non-profit that develops technology projects focused on low-carbon and zero-emissions transit and transportation. CUTRIC’s demonstration projects and in-house simulation tools help transit agencies across North America predict how battery electric buses, fuel cell electric buses and autonomous shuttles will operate in real-time in their communities. For more information please visit CUTRIC’s website.