TrafficInfraTech Magazine Linking People Places & Progress
Carlo Luigi Di Taranto, Director of InternationSmart Mobility Eco-systemal Sales unit, Swarco Mizar, says, As a response to zero emission policies in metropolitan areas, electrification of vehicles plays an increasing role in mobility. Another response to the zero emission policies fuels the tendency to shift from the vehicle to other modes of transportation for sustainable mobility, and therefore, the market is turning into a complex ecosystem where multiple modal options are combined to address travel needs through multimodality and shared mobility. Within this evolving environment, the world is also facing the transition towards connected and automated mobility, for a safer, efficient and comfortable travel experience.”
From an Indian context, congestion in terms of space available for road network is major problem for all city planners. Hence the systems with centralized control which contribute towards effective utilization of available road space become focal point for the related solutions. With this context, Swarco intend to contribute by offering integrated solutions which helps in:
• Keeping the vehicles in motion on the roads.
• Effective communication to the road users on current traffic situation for journey planning.
• Information related to availability of parking slots in business districts.
• V2X Vehicle to Infrastructure communication to influence and improve driver behaviour.
• Effective enforcement systems for speed violation and red-light violation.
• Improved public transport system to attract high ridership for buses.
The Swarco Group supplies systems for smart mobility and urban traffic management into numerous market sectors and aims to be a leading supplier of urban traffic control products, systems, services and solutions. The company offers a complete portfolio covering five market sectors: Urban Traffic Control System; Public Transport Management; Access and Parking Systems; Street Lighting; Signage; Signalling; Road Marking Systems.
Tarantino adds, “Cities and road authorities are facing a lot of challenges in facing these trends and evolve their legacy systems towards a new mobility era, fully connected, collaborative, multi-modal and user-centric. With respect to digitalization, there is a need to transform towards software services and to manage the data revolution and the huge amount of data sources, from the connected traveller to the IoT. Urbanization for example brings new issues related to access management and to the harmonization of the infrastructure towards sustainable mobility.
“As mobility is in reality multi-modal, mobility services and city managers have to focus on more than one single mode of transport. The management of roadbased traffic has to take into account the impact that this newly recognized multimodality. Also its impact on the entire mobility network and its effect has to be taken into account. If we look at India, where a key point would be developing solutions for low-income communities, shared mobility could be an answer and should be promoted especially for the first and last mile connections.
Regarding fleet management solutions, investments should be dedicated in order to enable reliable, convenient and cost-effective public transportation options at strategic locations and multi-modal transport system. The evolution towards automation implies the creation of the completely digital infrastructure and the revolution of traffic control and fleet management. Even though the connected car market in India is still in its early stage, the deployed infrastructure should be future proof and should consider future deployments related to automation.”
Swarco’s commitment in boosting the technological innovation needed to lead the transformation of mobility management, the company is building on its experience and expertise to shape solutions world-wide, towards the future user-centric mobility.
Smart Mobility Eco-system
We indeed live in interesting times when it comes to mobility. Dr Rajesh Krishnan, CEO, ITS Planners and Engineers Pvt Ltd sees innovations in three aspects of mobility. Firstly, it is the constitution of the transport system. The transport system is no longer segmented into private transport and public transport. The boundary between these traditional modes is blurring. Concepts like Demand Responsive Transport (DRT), Mobility as a Service (Maas) and the increased uptake of multi-modal journeys are resulting in new business models such as Uber, Shuttl, Whim, car clubs etc. This is leading to changed traveller behaviour including how private car ownership is viewed by the new generation and an altered role for the government in the mobility eco-system. Business models that provide shared mobility services should result in a lower number of private vehicles on the road, provided the induced demand due to the ease of using such services does not outstrip the reduction of vehicles otherwise achieved.