Smart Transportation is not an image from the futuristic world, it is already here. Improving the quality of life with seamless user experience, convenient and efficient modes of transportation are the primary goals of the Smart Cities Mission. Transportation and mobility facilities are the very foundation of Smart Cities. The article delves deeper into how India along with the rest of the world, are working hard for successfully implementing the initiative launched by the World Health Organization.
Only 30% of the world’s population was urban in 1950, by 2050 the number is estimated to reach 66%. Thousands of cities dotted across the lengths and breadths of the globe are on a mission to expand. They are trying to augment their infrastructure and facilities. And thus ensure the potential residents to lead a better quality of life. The global administration systems have taken the oath of developing “Smart Cities”. It refers to the increased application of technological advances for augmenting urban services. This includes transportation, energy efficiency, waste management, for operating more sustainably. Technology is incorporated extensively for developing ideas for smart city transportation.
The United Nations (UN) has launched an initiative of “United Smart Cities” to develop and scale up the concept. Since 2017, several Chinese cities have begun their journey towards achieving the status of smart cities. The Indian Government has also shown keen interest in developing Smart Cities. This initiative is for transforming the cities into more sustainable and citizen-friendly. The 2017 Smart City Index has used transportation and mobility as the primary parameters for ranking of the cities. In India, only 20 cities have managed to organise transportation and mobility facilities. This is hinting at a large gap to be bridged in their attaining the vision of “Smart Cities”.
Finding Smart Solutions
In India and also across the world, the transportation sector is attracting several lucrative investments. The growing urbanization, the increasing literacy rates, the booming of job opportunities, the budding of the startup ecosystem in the metro cities, increase in per capita income are some of the major growth drivers of the development of cities.
Thousands of people are migrating internally within the country. And relocating to major cities for augmenting the lifestyle and prospering in their careers. The situation demands smart solutions which are beyond the traditional and basic factors, like electricity, water facilities etc. Looking beyond the conventional expansion approaches is essential. The introduction of high-speed vehicles, interlinking roads, flyovers, metro railways, upgrading constructions etc has already started in full swing.
Urban transportation system faces several challenges like traffic congestion, insufficient parking spaces, lack of last-mile connectivity, inequitable access for all residents, poor management of roads, pollution etc. It is observed by industry experts that India loses $21.3 billion approximately in a year due to excess fuel consumption and poor conditions of the roads.
As reported by the World Health Organization, eleven out of the twelve most polluted cities in the world are in India. Pollution levels are rising at a rapid face, with the declining of the usage of public transportation. More and more people are having their personal vehicles, one of the major factors leading to the rise in pollution and congestion.
All the above-mentioned problems are obstructing the path to reach the title of “Smart Cities”. The problems require smart solutions, as conventional solutions are falling short. Smart transportation solutions can overcome all these challenges, by providing an integrated mechanism that is accessible, multi-modal and intelligent.
Many public sector companies around the world encourage the use of public transportation options. These options can be availed through on-demand and multimodal trip planning applications. Integrated payment systems such as Oyster in London and EZ-Link in Singapore enable the commuters to choose from different modes of public transportation using a singular smartcard.
The shipping industry and startups around the world are seen embracing technology-driven solutions. For example, a startup in Cape Town has introduced an open platform that provides detail information about the formal and informal public transport options in African cities. This helps in improving user experience and also providing important transportation data for better planning.
Technology-based solutions can also be applied in fleet management systems. For instance, “a last-mile logistics provider helped a Delhi-based courier dispatch company track its fleets in real-time. The company receives alerts every time its shipping trucks reach their destination, report to the warehouse or break down.”
Ensuring Seamless Mobility Experience
The foundation of Smart Transportation is the Smart Infrastructure that includes automated traffic signals, tolls and fare collection systems, besides the multi-modal connected conveyance facilities. The system is driven by Data Integration System, that includes weather and traffic data, emergency service data, data of the government agencies etc.
The people can draw smart benefits from these smart services, like smart parking and vehicle location system, route diversion alerts etc. A centralized command system can link together the smart transportation ecosystem, with updated data, managing passenger information, controlling traffic signals, monitoring vehicle health and incident management.
Optimized on-demand services can enable the citizen to choose from the various modes of transport as per their requirements. In case the public transportation is made robust and can be accessed by the shared mobility services, then citizen can select from the options as per their commuting requirements, be it leisure or daily office commute etc. This way, the number of private vehicles can be reduced, which in turn can help in controlling pollution and traffic congestion.
Several cities around the world are incorporating technological tools for providing seamless and smart transportation facilities. Mobility as a Service or MaaS is designed to solve the problems related to urban population density, making the transportation facilities more convenient and efficient. It ensures easy access of passengers to different modes of transportation via mobile applications and online platforms. Smartphone penetration, digitization, cashless transactions and internet availability have boosted the growth of MaaS. It can integrate first and last-mile connectivity seamlessly.
Forbes reported the application of Intelligent Traffic Management systems for ensuring better connectivity. By this integrated and advanced system, “City planners can track data records and area-wise people movement and use this information to build models whereby public transportation gets deployed in areas of maximum people movement to ensure better connectivity.” The report also mentioned one instance where the system was applied in London. “An instance of such deployment was Vodafone and Citi Logik’s project with Transport for London (TfL). During the trial, over 10 billion pieces of data were collected. And algorithms were run to create journey matrices of around 1.2 billion journeys. TfL used the data to supplement the existing TfL roadside sensor network data.”
Initiatives by the Indian Government
The Indian Government has launched several initiatives like, Make in India, FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electrical Vehicles), Green Mobility Fund, and Smart Cities. This is done to enhance high-speed mobility facilities in the country, for example, by introducing high-speed trains and ‘Hyperloop’ connectivity. The government is actively working on the National Transport Master Plan for providing convenient mobility of freight and passengers across multi-modal transport. ‘Sagar Mala Project’ of the Shipping Ministry of India focuses on the developments of ports. This a step towards increasing corporate investment in the sector by introducing business-friendly strategies for effective and profitable project execution.
As reported by The Hindu Business Line, “Experts estimate that India could save 64 per cent energy in 2030 by shifting to shared electric mobility. Further, there can be a drop in petrol and diesel consumption of 156 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MTOE) or 1.8 tera watt-hour energy — enough to power 1,796.3 million homes. This would also result in a significant drop in carbon dioxide emissions. While the idea of electric vehicles never picked up pace in India. This is mostly due to the lack of recharging infrastructure. With significant advancements in battery technologies, it is high time that we forayed more into this area. The power ministry has already announced an all-electric car fleet in India by 2030.”
Collective Cooperation
The responsibilities of Smart Cities and Smart Transportation must be shared by all; collective cooperation is the need of the hour. Both the public and private sector agencies must work together collectively. Such collaboration is essential for coming up with specific technology-enabled solutions of the country.
The active participation of the private sector companies can enhance the incorporation of the latest technologies; can attract more capital and investment options. The citizens must actively participate in such initiatives through community programmes. India can leapfrog from the traditional transportation model to a shared, electric and connected mobility in the coming years. It can be achieved by dynamic technical expertise, and emerging entrepreneurial culture.
Technological tools like GPS, Cloud, Big Data, Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) etc will be at the epicentre of the evolving Smart Transportation. Global partnerships and collaborations, new age technology startups and IT companies can accelerate the digital transformation required for achieving the title of “Smart Cities”.
Conclusion
Attaining the title of “Smart Transportation” and “Smart Cities” can be rough for India, with high population density, but the journey has already started. Smart transportation is the building block of smart cities. Be it better time management by controlling traffic congestion, reducing pollution levels, or increasing GDP by reducing fuel consumption of vehicles, smart transportation will be omnipresent in the foreseeable future. A connected ecosystem where people will travel seamlessly is the vision of the world of today and tomorrow.