Recent developments in Estonia and the US highlight the transformative potential of smart transportation solutions in benefiting communities worldwide.
Smart transportation initiatives are revolutionising urban mobility by harnessing technology to enhance safety, efficiency, and sustainability in transportation systems.
This week on SmartCitiesWorld, we’ve reported on two recent developments in Estonia and the United States that highlight the transformative potential of smart transportation solutions in benefiting communities worldwide.
Transportation is at the heart of every city. Transit is the city's circulatory system that supplies the necessary resources for the city to function. However, many megacities worldwide are experiencing a clog in the system. The average commute in the U.S. is estimated to take around 27 minutes. Back and forth, that would be nearly an hour. For one of America’s megacities, New York, the average round-trip commute can take around a staggering 79.6 minutes.
Transportation problems are a common hindrance to a city's progress, and they're one of the many problems that innovators like Prasanth Sasidharan aim to tackle. Prasanth's expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and engineering has already been adopted by large transportation companies in Abu Dhabi for compliance to city traffic authority KPI’s, fleet management including vehicle maintenance and shows how other megacities can deal with their transportation problems. Furthermore, his expertise in building integrated smart city technologies can help the world envision the future of transportation with AI at its forefront.
Read more: Transportation Problems in Megacities: Can AI Help Solve It?
For the moment, 5G has been positioned as a consumer technology focused on delivering better download speeds and a smoother connectivity experience. While this is true, these benefits are largely a by-product and miss the point of what 5G has been designed to do.
5G is a very different technology to its predecessors. Where 4G focused on connecting people to the internet, 5G has been designed to go beyond this, with the capability to connect vast amounts of ‘things’, as well as people.
Read more: Intelligent transport systems: the best thing since sliced bread
Across cities and countries, technology and transportation have become increasingly interwoven. From digital ticketing to ride-hail apps, technology has made it so transportation is more widely available, easier to use and drives us toward a more sustainable world.
For the past five years, I’ve had the privilege to lead Modeshift, a technology company that enables transit agencies to provide intelligent transportation services, and a unique opportunity to observe, innovate, develop and implement solutions that reshape the public transportation sector.
Read more: Three Transportation Tech Trends That Will Shape Cities And Countries
Transportation projects often get delayed because of unclear structures and procedures within city agencies. A new report examines how the right mix of structure, people and processes can achieve success.
Does it take your city 10 years and untold millions of dollars to design and install a few miles of bike lanes, only to find, as the paint is still drying, that the water department says it’s time to dig up the street and replace the mains? You might have a structural problem.
Read more: How Cities Can Solve Transportation Problems and Deliver Better Service