Andrew Nash
Transportation Consultant

Creativity and Innovation in Transportation

Introduction

We must learn to think creatively and implement creative solutions if we hope to effectively solve problems. There are two problems: thinking creatively and implementing the creative ideas we develop.

Thinking Creatively

Many people believe that thinking is like hair color, something people are born with and cannot change. But this is not the case, thinking is a skill that can be learned and creative thinking can be encouraged using a series of specific techniques designed to identify and evaluate new ideas. It is critical to understand that creativity, rather than being the exclusive province of 'artistic types' or based on flashes of intuition, is most often the result of structured thinking about processes or programs.

One of the leading authorities in teaching people how to think is Edward de Bono. De Bono has written many books and is perhaps best known as the inventor of the term "lateral thinking". De Bono's techniques can be used by everyone to help them think more creatively.

Creativity is especially needed—and stifled—in the area of government, where a combination of political environment and lack of competition create a situation where almost any new idea is impossible to implement. The transportation business, since it relies on government provided infrastructure is especially impacted by this lack of creativity.

Richardson from the Urban Transport Institute in Australia describes the need for applying de Bono's lateral thinking techniques in the transportation field (2003 TRB 03-2088). The paper makes the point that while much attention has been paid to the steps in the transportation planning process, relatively little has focused on the creative specification of alternatives.

Research: Learning from other transport modes.

One technique for thinking creatively is to identify successful strategies from one business and develop ideas for applying them to another business. Two papers that use this technique are:

• Applying Low Cost Airline Pricing Strategies on European Railroads; (Sauter-Servaes/Nash) - This paper describes how European railroads are using techniques based on low cost airline strategies to address growing competition.    TRB Presentation
• Lessons for Public Transit from the Low Cost Airline Industry -or- What if Southwest Airlines ran the Muni? - This paper, presented at the TRB 2005 Annual Meeting seeks to stimulate thinking by examining the success factors for low cost airlines and asking how these factors could be implemented to improve public transport.   TRB Presentation

Contact

Please contact me if you have questions or want to know more about my work and ideas.

Updated: 4 February 2009