The Sustainable Urban Transitions (SUT) Lab, a partnership between ETH Zurich, one of the world's leading technical universities, and the Bolt Urban Fund, has launched a study to analyse Asuncion’s evolving transport mix and identify ways to increase accessibility in underserved areas.

Understanding Asunción’s changing transport mix

Asunción is moving forward with a new Public Transport Law, the renewal of bus lines, and the recent approval of a commuter rail project connecting Asunción with Luque.

In the meantime, people combine shared mobility apps with the bus network as a complementary solution to get around the city.

In Asunción, the SUT Lab will analyse the current transport infrastructure, mobility services and how people move (frequency, duration, routes, and schedules). The study aims to identify neighbourhoods with low public transport connectivity, assess ride-hailing usage patterns and establish whether ride-hailing complements public transport and can address connectivity gaps.

For the Study, the SUT Lab will collaborate with the Municipality of Asunción and the Universidad Nacional de Asunción (UNA), ensuring research outputs are grounded in local expertise and feed directly into city decision-making on ways to increase accessibility in underserved areas.

Using data to support multimodal transport planning

The SUT Lab was founded in 2025 with a vision to bridge the science-policy gap in urban planning and to support cities in accelerating their transition to better-integrated multimodal transport.

The ETH Zurich research team uses Bolt’s proprietary shared-mobility data, city transport data, and advanced analytics and simulation modelling to generate practical, evidence-based recommendations for city planning teams.

The Lab is already active in European cities, including Hannover, Seville, and Lisbon, where it is studying travel behaviour, the connection between shared mobility and public transport, and modelling the impact of major infrastructure investments.

Local and research partners on the study

Dr. Vicente Capello, Director of Transport of the Municipality of Asunción, said: “Asunción faces significant mobility challenges as the capital city and main economic hub of the metropolitan area. Our goal is to advance towards a multimodal mobility system that efficiently and sustainably integrates public transport, private transport, and digital mobility platforms. The launch of the SUT Lab, with the support of the Bolt Urban Fund, will be a key tool in helping us develop solutions that improve mobility and enhance citizens' quality of life."

Prof. Dr. Bryan Adey, Professor of Infrastructure Management at ETH Zurich, said: "A well-functioning urban transport system improves quality of life, economic growth, and accessibility. Our work in Hannover and Seville has shown how powerful it can be to combine operator data, spatial analytics, simulation modelling and local knowledge to generate evidence that planners can actually use. The Asunción transport system is evolving fast, and we believe that the SUT Lab impact study can offer some hands-on support to planning teams”.

Eirini Zafeiratou, VP of Policy and Regulatory at Bolt, said: "Asunción represents exactly the kind of city where rigorous, data-driven research can make a real difference; a rapidly growing urban area where shared mobility is already becoming a crucial element of the wider transport network. The SUT Lab was built to bring evidence-based recommendations to city planning teams, and we're proud to be extending that work to South America for the first time.”

SUT Lab launches Asunción transport accessibility study

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SUT Lab launches Asunción transport accessibility study