Connected Institutions: Using Platform Powers to Advance Transport

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• Levinson, David (2024) Connected Institutions: Using Platform Powers to Advance Transport. Urban Science 2024, 8(4), 245; - 4 Dec 2024 [doi]

This perspective paper analyzes selected policy strategies for transforming transport. It identifies four primary objectives: enhance economic efficiency, increase equity, reduce negative externalities, and improve the user experience (4Es). It then develops the framework of persuasion, police, purse, and platform powers (4Ps), which are available to governments to implement change and pursue their objectives. In a series of cases, it illustrates those powers, particularly the underappreciated platform powers, the formation and promulgation of standards, which are themselves the key technology for connecting institutions, showing how the establishment of technical standards transforms existing transport and lays the groundwork for new opportunities.

Figure 1. Aims vs. Tools, sorted by illustrative Applications (successes and failures). Each application is contextualized by place and time, along with the associated institutions. Cases are derived from this matrix (shown in italics). Discussion on applications for emerging transformative transport technologies is included in the text.