Making Hay Monday – January 12th, 2026

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David Hay

Editor

Haymaker

Making Hay Monday

Mobility: No Longer A Sidecar

“We live in a world of mobile technology, but it is not the device that is mobile. It is you.”

-Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

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Why Mobility’s No Longer a Sidecar in the AI Age

For decades, the mobility sector has been considered by many investors’ to be a convenience sector. An interesting and disruptive area, sure, but also margin-challenged and tethered to consumer cyclicality. That mental model is overdue for some form of demolition.

What is quietly underway, and almost completely underpriced by markets, is the reclassification of mobility as infrastructure. Maybe not in the traditional cement-and-steel sense, but as a capital-light layer that now underpins everything from urban logistics to commuter flow to real-time economic routing. Movement is becoming essential infrastructure and increasingly monetizable in ways that the average investor has yet to recognize.

The backdrop for this reappraisal isn’t just the rise of new platforms or modes of transport, but a much deeper structural shift. Urban areas, post-COVID, are being rebuilt in ways that reflect flexible work, distributed labor, and fluctuating demand patterns.

As a direct result, historical travel patterns (like the typical 9 to 5 traffic wave) have fractured. In the U.S., midday transit usage has increased by 15% to 25% from pre-pandemic baselines across major metropolitan regions, and weekend mobility now exceeds weekday demand in multiple cities. Yet, this rebound in travel volume is not matched by a rebound in car ownership. In fact, in cities like Seattle, the ratio of residents to privately owned vehicles is falling. For a generation priced out of car ownership by higher rates, rising insurance costs (up 25% in the past 18 months), and growing congestion, personal cars are becoming more of a luxury good than a default option…