Abstract
A smarter transport system that caters for social, economic and environmental sustainability is arguably one of the most critical prerequisites for creating pathways to more livable urban futures. This paper aims to provide a state-of-the-art analysis of a selection of mobility initiatives that may dictate the future of urban transportation and make cities smarter. These are mechanisms either recently introduced with encouraging uptake so far and much greater potential to contribute in a shift to a better transport paradigm or still in an embryonic stage of their development and yet to be embraced as powerful mechanisms that could change travel behaviour norms. Autonomous and connected vehicles are set to revolutionise the urban landscape by allowing machines to take over driving that for over a century has been exclusively a human activity, while electrical vehicles are already helping decarbonising the transport sector. Bus rapid transit has been steadily reinventing and rebranding conventional bus services revitalising the use of the humblest form of public transport, while hyperloop is an entirely new, disruptive, and somewhat provocative, travel mode proposition based on the use of sealed tube systems through which pods could travel free of air resistance with speeds exceeding 1000 km/h. Shared use mobility mechanisms like car-sharing, ride-sharing, ride-sourcing and public bicycles can help establishing a culture for using mobility resources on an as-needed basis, while mobility-as-a-service will take this sharing culture a step further, offering tailored mobility and trip planning packages that could entirely replace the need for privately owned modes of transport.
Highlights
Smart cities are the result of knowledge-intensive and creative strategies, aimed at enhancing the socio-economic, ecological, logistic and competitive performance of cities [1]
connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) have been associated with the negative socio-economic consequences of the loss of millions of driving-related jobs [17] there are studies [18] reporting that there are many transport experts who believe that human ingenuity will create new jobs, industries, and ways to make a living, just as it has been doing since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution
Car-sharing can be perhaps thought off as a systematic short-term car-rental initiative [69] but is significantly different from traditional car rentals in many ways: car-sharing is not restricted by office hours and can run 24/7 because reservation, pickup, and return are all self-service and app-based; automobiles are rented usually for significantly shorter time periods typically spanning for a few hours; users are registered subscribers of the scheme and known qualities that have passed the necessary control checks; fuel costs usually included in the rates; there are more pick-up and drop-off points that tend to be closer to mobility hubs; better insurance policies are in place; car-sharing is usually more inexpensive than car rentals
Summary
Smart cities are the result of knowledge-intensive and creative strategies, aimed at enhancing the socio-economic, ecological, logistic and competitive performance of cities [1]. The core sections of the paper, followed by a discussion and conclusions part, present the six chosen interventions namely: autonomous and connected vehicles, electromobility, bus rapid transit, hyperloop, shared use mobility and mobility-as-a-service. Autonomous and connected vehicles (ACVs), the developing crown jewel of the synergies between artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, automotive design and information technologies, have the potential to be the most robust intervention in the history of mobility by empowering the car to take control and perfect the craft of driving, making calculated decisions and interacting with the urban environment and traffic flow to heights unprecedented for a human. Fully connected driverless vehicles have the capacity to transform urban development as known today, with a revolution in ground transport, regulations permitting, that could dramatically change the landscape of cities and have an enormous economic, social, spatial, and mobility impact [4]. MaaS platforms typically provide an intermodal journey planner (providing combinations of different transport modes: car-sharing, car rental, underground, rail, bus, bike-sharing, taxi, etc.), a booking system, easy-payment, and real-time information [9]
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