Op-Ed: Transit in the new age of experience

For most of the 20th century, the future was signified by fantastical visions of transportation.  

We are certainly all familiar with the flying, glass-domed cars of The Jetsons or the multi-tiered, mechanized city of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. In these optimistic, or sometimes dystopian visions, progress was always visualized through new modes of movement—personal spacecraft, ultrasonic trains and cities characterized by perpetual motion and movement. Transportation became a symbol of innovation and the promise of a better world. 

And yet, the question remains: despite the technological innovations in transportation over the past 25 years, have engineers, planners, policymakers and designers fully realized the bright future they once envisioned? 

While the answer is an ambiguous not exactly, there is a new paradigm emerging for how we think about transportation. Today, the great advances in transportation are not being defined by Waymo-esque self-driving cars or Hyperloop-style bullet trains. Instead, it is marked by a more fundamental transformation: a revolution in the experience of movement itself. 

Transportation has not stalled because innovation has slowed, but rather because we have been measuring progress using the wrong metrics. Speed, capacity and efficiency remain essential, but they are no longer singularly sufficient. The defining challenge of contemporary mobility is no longer mechanical; it is cognitive. 

We have entered what might be understood as the “new experiential age”. In this era, mobility is no longer understood as movement alone, but as a real-time, adaptive system—one that integrates data, artificial intelligence (AI), behavioral insight and spatial design to make complexity legible, humane and efficient. Transportation systems are becoming dynamic environments that sense, respond and evolve alongside the people who use them. 

Crucially, this shift also expands the role of designers and planners. Empathy, for example, is no longer a soft metric, but instead it is now recognized as a critical consideration for any design challenge. Feelings of clarity, confidence, calm and even delight are now fundamental considerations for how the visitor journey must be designed. These insights are essential to establishing trust, defining orientation and catalyzing engagement. Moments of joy or surprise, what we might call wow moments, signal that a system understands its users and respects their time, attention, needs and spending power. 

At the same time, advances in data and AI are enabling a move from generic schedules and static systems toward more responsive, personalized experiences. Real-time behavioral insights make it possible to tailor information, routes and services dynamically—shifting transit from a one-size-fits-all model toward one that adapts to context, demand and human behavior. Increasingly, mobility is also becoming a purpose-driven lifestyle choice, intertwined with questions of equity, sustainability and identity. 

For example, during a weather event, imagine the positive impact of a traveler receiving a single, calm notification that not only confirms their new flight and gate, but also adjusts their path through the airport in real time—recommending the quickest security lane, nearby quiet workspaces, food options aligned with their preferences and current wait times and restroom stops so they never feel rushed. By eliminating the small but cumulative micro-aggressions of a typical travel disruption, the system transforms what used to be peak stress into a surprisingly effortless, dynamic experience with a meaningful impact on the passenger. 

As these forces converge, experience itself has become a new form of travel infrastructure. 

This reframes the future of transportation entirely. The future is not a vehicle innovation or a new building typology. Instead, it is the relationship between the traveler and the systems that guide, inform and support them. 

For more than a century, designers have been captivated by the form of the future. Today, the greatest friction we face is no longer structural or mechanical, it is perceptual. Anxiety, confusion, mistrust and cognitive overload have become the true bottlenecks of contemporary mobility. 

This presents an extraordinary opportunity. 

By leveraging real-time data, behavioral science and emerging technologies—while centering human experience—designers, planners and transit authorities can finally fulfill the long-promised vision of transportation as a force for collective progress. 

The future of transportation will not be defined by what moves faster. It will be defined by what feels clearer, calmer and more humane—even at a massive scale. In this new experiential age, transit leaders are no longer simply operators of systems: They are authors of experience.