3.1 Conceptualization of Smart Urban Transportation Systems
3.1 Conceptualization of Smart Urban Transportation Systems
In this session, we will conceptualize the transition into smart urban transportation system and we do
this in 3 steps.
We will firstly identify the main 3 drivers towards such systems and then we will conceptualize the
evolution of these systems and finally we will lay out the 2 main steps that it takes in order to make
this transition Now the main drivers. There are 3 main drivers, we think, that push towards smarter
urban transportation systems.
The first one is one is, of course, urbanization. More people living in cities. Transport becomes
more and more congested and the users have an increasingly poor experience, be it the users of the
car or the bicycle or the buses and that is certainly one of the main drivers that pushes for smarter
systems and the second driver is the main topic that we have always dealt with in this MOOC.
That is the digitalization that actually makes a whole series of changes that makes smarter urban
transportation systems possible. And the third driver here is climate change or resource
efficiency. Approximately 15 - 20% of global CO2 emissions actually come from urban
transportation and so there is a strong push to make these systems more efficient and make them
smarter.
In this session, we will focus on how the ICTs can help to improve urban transportation systems, in
terms of user experience and safety. We will focus on two direction namely to use the information
and communication technology to monitor urban transportation infrastructures and automated driving
vehicles. We will see to directions have implication for both public and private transportation.
The first area where digitalization can help is in the monitoring of urban transportation systems.
Indeed, by making the transportation infrastructure equipped with data gathering devices such as
video cameras, speed cameras, sensors for traffic detection such as infrared, laser, RFID, as well as
wired and wireless communication devices.
We can now have a better understanding of the behavior of urban transportation systems. And best
decide to optimize them accordingly. The use of the ICTs to monitor transportation infrastructure has
direct implications to begin, in the infrastructure layer. Indeed, transportation and infrastructure
managers, have now to pay tension, to the integration of the legacy transportation infrastructure, to
this new data infrastructure.
There are also implications in the data layer. Transportation infrastructure managers, must pay
attention to the reliability of data. And whether they're complete and holistic or not.
Data coming from different channels should also be easy to standardize. Last but not least, one
must be sure that the data is secured, that's to say that the data doesn't end up into the wrong
hands as there might be confidential data and should not be misused. To finish their implications in
the services layer. Thanks to the data gathered, transportation providers can make
their transportation services more accessible performing. And respond eventually more adequately
to the demand whereas private car users can benefit from new services such as raise, allowing them
to adapt their routes when driving, for example, thanks to dynamic route laners that are using real-
time data.The other direction that is contributing to improve the experience of private and public
transportation users, as well as the safety of urban transportation systems, can be observed in the
development of self-driving vehicles, also known as automated vehicles.
Most of the road accidents nowadays are caused because of human error.
And having machines complete the driving test instead of humans.
Should it be for personal course or public transport,
vehicles could alternatively reduce the number of accidents on the road,
increase the safety of transportation systems, and
ultimately make our urban transportation systems more efficient.
Another activity in favor of automated vehicles
is that it would allow people to complete other tasks than the driving task
when using a vehicle to go from one location to another.
That is to say, have them stop wasting their time when commuting.
Start transcript at 3 minutes 34 seconds3:34
Traditional vehicles, should they be cars, shuttles,
buses are already importing amounts of data that you do not even think of.
Think about the speed of the vehicle, the direction it's heading to, it's traction
and stability, it's brake status, the hours of operation, the mileage.
Thanks to the ICTs, the data can now be used to make our vehicle more
automated progressively towards what is known as self driving vehicles.
As agreed by United States Department of Transportation,
car automation can be divided into five steps.
Legal zero which is not a step is known as no automation level.
Level one which is the first step is when the driver benefits the one driving
the assisted system, such as breaking assistance for example.
Start transcript at 4 minutes 27 seconds4:27
Level two is where the driver benefits of at least two driving assistance systems,
for example cruise control and breaking assistance at the same time.
Start transcript at 4 minutes 37 seconds4:37
Whereas these three first levels are enabled by automation mechanisms,
the next three steps are enabled by a combination of automation and
ICT-facilitated processes.
Level three is defined as Conditional Automation where the driving test is
completed by an automated driving system, but
it is expected that the driver response appropriately if needed.
Such systems are correctly being used on highways with, for
example, what Tesla is proposing in California, in the United States.
But not yet in urban systems due to to the high complexity of traffic in town.
Start transcript at 5 minutes 16 seconds5:16
Level four is defined at the high automation,
which is the evolution of level three into a stage where the human driver
does not even need to respond appropriately if needed.
This is being developed and
according to Tesla still search functionality should be available in 2018.
The last level of this automation ladder is level five known as full
automation where all aspects of driving will become completed by
driving assistance systems including activities such as parking.
Automated vehicles of level five will not have any options for human driving,
meaning they won't even be equipped with steering wheels or control.
Start transcript at 6 minutes 2 seconds6:02
As we will see now, self-driving vehicles have implications on the infrastructure,
the data, and the service layer.
In order to reduce levels of automation,
the transportation infrastructure needs to be updated.
First, vehicles need to be equipped with data processing and
communication technologies, so they can communicate with each other.
This is also known as the vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
Start transcript at 6 minutes 29 seconds6:29
The infrastructure itself needs to be able to communicate with the vehicle as well.
For example, speed limitations, road signs, traffic lights need to equipped
in order to be able to send some signals to vehicles about the road conditions.
Should we one day have automated bus traffic transit systems?
Bus stations will need to be equipped with data receiving and
emitting devices to be able to communicate with driverless buses fleet,
implications in the data layer are also very important.
The data needs to be standardized between the different vehicles, for
example between the bus and cars.
And between vehicles from different manufacturers so
they are still able to communicate with one another.
Start transcript at 7 minutes 15 seconds7:15
Then, comes the question of who owns the data.
Is it the consumer, is it the vehicle manufacturer, is it the public authority.
For those owning the data, we must ask the question of the pricing of the data and
to what extent the data can be sold to third-party companies.
Start transcript at 7 minutes 32 seconds7:32
Last, but not least, the data need to be secure.
As you can imagine, misuse of self-driving vehicle data could be highly dangerous.
At the services layer, implications also exist.
Indeed, in case of a road accident,
the question of who is held accountable must be taken into account.
Is it the car user that is responsible to transportation provider?
The vehicle manufacturing company to insurance company.
And we also need to care about the social acceptance of
driver less vehicle technology.
That will not be the same among different social classes or ages group.
You might think about the social acceptance of driverless cars, but
the social acceptance of automated public transport
should be considered with the same importance.
Last, but not least, driverless vehicles will have institutional implications.
For example, public authorities might need to make the driving code evolve.
Or one can wonder if people will even need to own the kind of driving
license anymore, to be able to use a driverless vehicle.
In this session,we have seen two main directions, enabled by the ICT to address,
the safety and user experience challenge in private and public transport.
And the implications these two directions have in the infrastructure, the data and
the services they own.
We will now hear from our expect, Stephen Shaffer from Siemens, will explain to
us what are the main drivers behind the emergence of smart urban mobility systems.
Stay tuned.
Welcome back.
Start transcript at 7 seconds0:07
In this last session
of the third block
we will now talk about
the necessary conditions
towards smart urban mobility systems.
Highlighting in particular
that main challenges for managers
and policy-makers.
So let's first look
at the challenges for managers.
I mean typically
those are challenges
for urban transportation managers.
And we have distinguished this
along as a series of categories
but the most important one
a sort of the challenges in the area
of the infrastructure layer,
the services layer
and the data layer.
Now, the most important challenges
at the infrastructure layer level
are the questions of interconnection
of transportation modes.
The different transportation modes
in light of mobility
as being the new kind of approach,
the new kind of services.
Managers need to pay
much more attention
into the interconnection
of the different transportation modes.
And also they need to pay attention
to upgrading the infrastructures
with the necessary ICT devices,
sensors, tools, so that
they can be made digital compatible.
So that the services
can actually be offered.
On the services layers,
I think managers
are particularly challenged
to come up with new business models.
On the basis of this data
that are generated
it is important
to find the business models
that are sustainable
and that will work.
And also on the services layer
it is of course important
that the users accept a new services
and that has very much to do
with the digital divide.
Not all types of user
are equally adapt to dealing
with a new digital mobility services.
On the data layer
the typical challenge
pertains for managers,
for urban transportation managers
pertains to data standards,
and protocols.
So that the data that are generated
can actually be exchange
and used later to meet
make the services.
Another big challenge of course
at the data layer
is the security challenge,
to make sure that this data
are not hacked
and that there are no security breaches.
Now, let's look at the challenges
for policy-makers,
for urban policy-makers
Again, the same distinctions
but the focus is of course different
and the infrastructure layer.
I think policy-makers
are very much challenged
to find the necessary finances
for this infrastructures.
This is not necessarily a question
that is new but of course
in the context
of the new mobility services
it's very important to look
at what needs to be finance
and which infrastructures
need to be finance.
Then other policy-makers challenges here
are the infrastructure development
which infrastructures to develop,
what kind of infrastructures to develop
and that always in relationship
to land use planning,
where to develop.
And if one looks at
the metropolitan level
it's the same kind of thing
except that there are
multiple political authorities
that need to plan and develop
the infrastructures together
and plan the land use together.
On the services layer,
the challenge here for policy-makers
is the coordination
of the different actors involved.
If we go to mobility services
There're many more actors
to coordinate and that is often
a political challenged
and then it's also of course
the question of the regulation
because the different actors
operate under different
kind of roles.
And there is no level playing field
and therefore there is a big challenge
for policy-makers to come up
with regulations that actually allow
for mobility services.
The same actually is true
at the metropolitan level
except that most typically regulation
will not happen there
but it's also a challenge
of coordinating the different actors.
And on the data layer the challenge,
the main challenge for policy-makers
pertains first to the whole financing
of the data infrastructure.
There are all kind of investments
that are necessary
to make this data platforms,
to make them available,
make them usable
and put them at the disposal
of the different operators.
Another political challenge
is the privacy challenge.
How much privacy is necessary?
And how much privacy
do actually the citizens want?
Start transcript at 5 minutes 35 seconds5:35
Then a further challenge
pertains to political challenge,
pertains to data policy,
is data an infrastructure,
is a data just a service,
is data a product
and how to regulate
these different data?
How to regulate access to this data?
How to regulate ownership
to this data?
The same questions arise
of course also
at the metropolitan level.
To conclude,
in this block we have conceptualized
smart urban transportation systems.
And we have showed
how the ICTs, how digitalization
can improve and can enable the shift
towards such systems.
We highlighted in particular
at the end
the challenges for managers,
urban transportation managers
and policy-makers.
Now, in the next two blocks
we will have take a much more
in-depth look into the transition
towards smart cities.
Stay tuned.