An urban transportation system is a culmination of services, technologies, and infrastructure that enable the movement of people, goods, and other services within a city or metropolitan area with ease. They provide a secure, efficient, and sustainable channel for people to manoeuvre through their day-to-day activities.
However, in large cities where crowd management is a new rising issue, the public transportation system is becoming overwhelming and inefficient, particularly during rush hours or peak hours of the day. This leads to congestion and bad air quality in those areas. To ease the situation some new and innovative urban transportation systems have been making it easier for travellers or commuters.
Some Innovative Urban Transportation Systems are:
Autonomous Vehicles
The main idea is that cars and trucks can drive themselves down the roads without human interference. Many companies are working on this concept for cars, buses, trains, trucks etc. Google itself has been testing driverless cars in Austin since 2014. Many researchers believe that the swarm of these vehicles combined with public transit will play a crucial part in solving the urbanisation challenges and environmental degradation.
Rod Traffic as a Software
There is a fair chance that with the influx of autonomous cars, there will be central software to monitor them. And it would give rise to the need to control the entire traffic system. An autonomous traffic management system can ensure fewer traffic jams by controlling the traffic flows and will help improve the safety of the people. It will also help avoid accidents as well.
Pedestrian and Cyclists- Friendly Initiative
Many smaller urban areas focus on making their streets more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists. This involves developing a separate bike lane, and pedestrian zones, and implementing bike-sharing programs. They also have been working on making a separate area called safe bays for elderly people, small children, and pregnant ladies to ensure their safety as well.
Some famous examples are of:
Traffic Management in Prague
Prague, Czech Republic, has a very unique approach to urban traffic management, as part of its smart city initiative. The city utilises intelligent transport networks to manage traffic flows more efficiently, especially in areas with high footfall. They have a cheap and seamless multi-modal and door-to-door mobility service comprising of metro, bus, tram, and waterborne transport
IMET and Grow Smarter Projects
These projects are rising in Barcelona, Spain, Stockholm, Sweden, Cologne, and Germany. IMET has been working on creating solutions for clean and smart transportation. The project aims to bring cities together and apply 12 smart city solutions within energy, infrastructure, and transport. A few solutions out of the 12 are:
Smart lighting, lampposts, and traffic posts
Smart waste collection and turning it into energy
Smart traffic management– A tool will be introduced to assist traffic managers in urban areas to avoid congestion. This will reduce traffic density and increase the traffic flow.
Smart mobility solutions like smart taxi stands, green parking index in combination with carpool sharing with electric vehicles, electrical and conventional car and bike sharing
Ghent’s Mobility Plan
Ghent, Belgium is another example of how the city regulates its urban transportation system. The city implemented a bold mobility plan that helped it transform into a low-traffic zone, prioritising pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport. Since 1996, Ghent has been a car-free city centre. The city is divided into 5 car-free zones where pedestrians can use the entire road and motorised vehicles can only enter with a permit. This has led to better air quality in the city and reduced transport energy use in the city to an extent.
Article Source: https://www.beesmart.city/en/smart-city-blog/urban-mobility-revolution-innovative-traffic-management-in-small-cities
https://www.intelligenttransport.com/transport-articles/21985/smart-cities-central-eastern-europe/
https://grow-smarter.eu/solutions/
https://www.beesmart.city/en/smart-city-blog/city-portrait-getting-smart-in-ghent
https://medium.com/@cxoincmagazine/eight-innovative-public-transportation-ideas-to-transform-the-transport-industry-6f6c8391aa6c
