Our world is changing at an unprecedented speed and the field in which this change is perhaps most evident is transportation. As we invest more and more into the future of the so-called smart cities, we see new means of transport and new forms of mobility emerging and thriving in our urban landscapes. Mobility as we know it is shifting, becoming increasingly shared and on-demand, undergoing a momentous change that will transform urban spaces, businesses, and society. The economic resources invested in this branch contribute to said change, of course, as do advances in technology, as well as our increasingly hyper-connected world. How will we move about in the smart cities of the future?
The future of mobility in smart cities
The mobility in our future smart cities will evolve to serve a different society from the one in which we grew up. Hopefully, this coming society will regularly take into account the environmental impact and energy consumption of every activity, it will incorporate technology in every aspect of life, having revolutionized the concept of work, and it will encourage remote working to reduce the need for commuting. The citizens of this future society will travel along less regular routes, thus prompting new research into the patterns and need of urban mobility: moving around with a motorised vehicle, for example, will become a choice to be weighed up and taken into consideration in the absence of sustainable alternatives for the same route. Public transport in smart cities must also coexist with the ample choice of on-demand services that connect users directly with companies or with each other. Private cars will become increasingly rare, while eco-sustainable individual vehicles, often shared via apps, will be the norm.
Vehicle automation
This is perhaps the one kind of mobility that many people still consider “science fiction”, yet technology has been moving in this direction for years now. Some public transport services in large cities like London are already automated. As we know, the first experiments with “driverless” cars have already been carried out in the USA, and management and control systems are being perfected. It is reasonable to think that the near future will bring a considerable increase in these modes of transport.
Shared mobility
What do we mean by shared mobility? This term refers to all those systems, often managed by apps, that allow users to quickly access basic modes of transport, both on predetermined routes and on-demand. This category includes car-sharing services, shared micro-mobility (such as bike-sharing and scooter-sharing), but also public transport, which is being updated to match the technological advances of other forms of mobility. The public network of smart cities, in fact, will be strongly interconnected and will allow fares to be paid through apps. This will generate a large amount of user information, which will be collected to determine the needs of users, strengthen the most requested routes, and generally optimise the available resources.
Electric vehicles
Electric-powered vehicles reduce CO2 and greenhouse gas emissions, significantly mitigating the environmental impact of transport in urban areas. Our future smart cities will undoubtedly see an increase in this type of mobility, in the form of cars, but also buses, scooters, and bicycles. Charging stations will become a permanent feature of our cities and service stations will have to be equipped accordingly.
Future scenarios for our smart cities
The urbanization process is changing direction compared to recent years. One of the consequences of the explosion in smart working (a trend that will undoubtedly continue after the crisis) has been the flight from big cities to small towns. This will radically change mobility needs, accelerating the adoption of more technological solutions in areas that have been less urbanised until now, and reducing the pressure on large centres. Intelligent transport will improve citizens’ daily lives and increasingly ensure sustainable travel.