07: Routing Futures for AI in Urban Mobility

Update: 2025-04-01

Description

As population growth, motorisation, and climate change strain urban mobility in the Asian region, the design and delivery of transport services are becoming increasingly complex. Experts Huê-Tâm Jamme and Kris Villanueva-Libunao explore why cities need equitable, people-centred planning that accounts for existing mobility patterns and what barriers exist to implementing AI for mobility. Hue-Tam emphasises the role of political will in shaping new transport modes that should not only support networks of economic activity but also enhance urban vibrancy and local culture. Kris juxtaposes AI’s potential to improve traffic management, sustainability, and safety with the need for strong data governance and capacity building for equitable AI implementation in the region. Together, they advocate for stakeholders to view mobility infrastructure as systems that impact people’s economic, social and cultural lives.

You can read the transcript for this episode ⁠here.

Speakers

Kris Villanueva-Libunao

CEO, SmartCT

Kris R. Villanueva-Libunao is a leader in digital governance, AI policy, and smart cities including smart mobility. As Executive Director of SMARTCT-Philippines, she leads initiatives integrating AI and data-driven solutions into urban planning, leading projects such as the Smart LGU Assessment and Growth Map to optimise mobility and infrastructure in local governments. Her expertise in AI governance is underscored by her role as AI Country Lead Researcher for the United Nations International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where she advanced policies to enhance gender-sensitive AI adoption in Southeast Asia. Kris has authored publications, including “Artificial Intelligence Policies to Enhance Urban Mobility in Southeast Asia”, and co-developed the Philippine National Transportation Strategy.

Huê-Tâm Jamme

Assistant Professor, Arizona State University

Huê-Tâm explores the effects of new technologies on space and society, especially on how people move, work, shop, and socialize in cities, asking how we can shape urban spaces that are more livable, accessible, and equitable? Jamme has led projects on car-free living in the US, automated food vending in France, and the platform economy in Southeast Asia. Her research interests span mobility, retail, transit-oriented development (TOD), and public space. Through her theory of "productive frictions", she explains how motorbike mobility in Vietnam produces high opportunities for commercial and social interactions on city streets; and why the rapid adoption of cars and mass transit will likely reduce the level of urban productive frictions..

Show Notes

Tomtom Traffic Index 2019

Global status report on road safety 2023

JICA Philippines Annual Report 2023, JICA Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure for Metro Manila 2014

Mobility over Air Quality Index (MAQI)

Doing Urban Development Fieldwork: Motorbike Ethnography in Hanoi (2018)

Informal transport in the Philippines

Clean Energy and Decarbonization in Southeast Asia

Singapore's 'AI Traffic System' set to tackle Phuket's congestion, A Smarter Way to Manage Mass Transit in a Smart City

JICA Survey Transit Oriented Development in Vietnam (2016)

The production of new mobilities: a theoretical framework to the politics of mobility transitions

Seoul Open Data