Zurich is ranked fifth in the latest Urban Mobility Readiness Index 2022, behind San Francisco, Stockholm, Helsinki and Singapore. The city has therefore climbed five spots since the previous year’s rankings. This year’s edition includes an inaugural sub-index for the quality of public transit. Here, Zurich is placed second after Hong Kong, ahead of Stockholm, Singapore, Helsinki and Oslo. Paris and Berlin are ranked eighth and ninth, respectively.
These rankings have been compiled by the Oliver Wyman Forum in New York and the University of California in Berkeley. The Index uses five basic dimensions to rank the 60 cities, namely infrastructure, social impact, market attractiveness, system efficiency and innovation.
Zurich’s roads are safe and high‑quality, which benefits pedestrians. Congestion is not a major issue and air quality is highly rated. Other positives are that Zurich is planning to release an advanced master plan in 2023 to integrate urban and social space with transport. This will also feature an urban climate vision and an agenda for implementation.
A criticism in the report is that the city’s reliance on trams could cause it to fall behind metro‑based cities, because the automation of metros has progressed much faster. One reason is that, despite strong public investments in mobility, Zurich is home to few mobility companies, which limits the access to private funding for infrastructural upgrades, such as autonomous transit. The municipal government has not invested in technology related to autonomy or connectivity. In shared mobility, too, Zurich lags behind European peers.
