Smart Cities – Sick Gaming

Traffic congestion is a problem in cities all over the world. The U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs states that 68 percent of the world’s population will live in cities over the coming decades up from 55 percent today.¹ As cities grow, congestion will get worse.

In Moscow, Russia, the average driver spends 210 hours a year waiting in traffic, while in Mexico City, Mexico, the average driver spends 218 a year in traffic. In Chicago, Illinois, the average driver is relatively lucky as they only spend 138 hours a year in traffic.²

person sitting at a bus stop, looking at a smartphone

One solution to traffic congestion is smart mobility. Smart mobility is the concept of connecting the elements of a city’s transportation system to the cloud. Data from each element—vehicles, traffic signals, people, roads, and maps—is collected, combined, and analyzed to optimize the flow of vehicles in the city.

If we drill down on how cities are using smart mobility to reduce traffic congestion today, we see best practices emerge. Let’s look at six key items that cities should embrace to enable smart mobility solutions.

To learn how Microsoft can help you get started with smart mobility, explore these resources.

Connected infrastructure

One criterion required to enable smart mobility to reduce traffic congestion is connected infrastructure. The different parts of a city’s transportation system need to be connected to the cloud: traffic lights, cars, buses, trains, bikes, people, maps, and even roads. This Internet of Things (IoT) approach allows location, speed, capacity, and other data to be collected, stored, and analyzed. Wilson Parking recently invested in connected infrastructure to decrease congestion for drivers using the new Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge. The city of Taipai has launched an initiative to connect 150,000 streetlights.

Access to data

Another criterion is access to data. Cities continuously collect and produce large quantities of data for planning, production, and decision-making. Sharing this data with the private sector can help accelerate smart mobility solutions. The City of Denver creates a holistic data environment that brings together data from multiple siloed sources to meet its smart mobility goals. Helsinki, Finland, opened access to city GIS transportation data.

Alternative transportation

A third criterion is offering compelling options to the “one car, one driver” model. For smart mobility, alternative options would need to be connected to the cloud:

Bicycle commuting: ideal for commutes of a few miles
Carsharing: rent cars by the minute or by the hour
Ridesharing (carpooling): make use of the empty seats already in the system
On-demand ride services: use personal vehicles to offer transportation services
Buses and trains: reimagining existing transportation by integrating them into end-to-end trip plans, including how to travel the last mile home

Autonomous vehicles

A fourth criterion required to enable smart mobility to reduce traffic congestion is the evolution of autonomous vehicles. While still in development, autonomous vehicles are cars or trucks in which human drivers are not required. These vehicles use sensors and software to control, navigate, and drive the vehicle. The use of autonomous vehicles to reduce traffic congestion depends on public policy. For example, self-driving cars could connect transit hubs, provide public transit services to communities not currently served, and be used to improve public transportation.³

Traffic management

Traffic management is ultimately at the heart of reducing congestion. The new Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge is a modern-day marvel that has forever changed traffic patterns across one of Asia’s fast-growing areas. Recent estimates say daily volume on the world’s longest sea bridge will reach 29,100 vehicles by 2030 and 42,000 vehicles by 2037. Wilson Parking enables drivers to pre-book spaces on the bridge, resulting in smoother traffic flows. The City of Denver uses its capabilities to take a proactive approach to transportation optimizations, for example, by enabling real-time adjustments to traffic flows in the case of accidents or other disruptions.

Two people standing with luggage, looking at a smartphone

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Applications

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) applications complete the smart mobility picture. The vision of MaaS is to make it easier and less expensive for car drivers and passengers to travel via alternative forms of transportation. MaaS applications enable travelers to plan trips based on their priorities and preferences. Microsoft is working with companies like Moovit and TomTom to offer critical real-time data to MaaS application providers, enabling them to deliver compelling applications.

By connecting traffic lights, vehicles, people, and roads to the cloud, sharing data, embracing alternative modes of transportation, and building traffic management systems, cities like Hong Kong, Taipei, and Denver are experiencing success and leading the way for other cities. As travelers adopt MaaS applications, they will increasingly choose mass transit options over driving on their own. The advent of autonomous vehicles will eventually help reduce traffic congestion even further.

Learn how Microsoft can help you get started with smart mobility.

References:

¹United Nations Dept. of Economics and Social Population Dynamics

²INRIX 2018 Global Scorecard

³Union of Concerned Scientists, Maximizing the Benefits of Self-Driving Vehicles

The United Nations (UN) estimates that by 2050, 68 percent of the world’s population will live in cities. This rapid urbanization poses serious challenges to municipalities around the world, such as increased congestion and air pollution.

Cities need to be resilient – to survive, adapt, and grow, they also need to be great places to live in. Smart cities are leading the way in this transformation by moving on from 19^th century ways of designing cities around automobiles to redesigning cities with people in mind – technology can help in ways not possible before.

Finding new ways to connect with and engage residents

Participating in local governance is important for all city residents, but traditional city hall meetings aren’t accessible to everyone. Smart cities, however, are now bringing city halls online via social media, or kiosks to remote areas.

At the same time, smart cities are modernizing their services and the infrastructure that delivers them. Water, energy, and other public services need careful regulation, and Internet of Things (IoT) technology is helping cities manage them in a sustainable and economical way. Cities are even using these innovations to collaborate across departments. In Denver, air quality sensors outside of schools measure the levels of pollution in different areas. City workers combine this information with traffic data to build a complete picture of how the flow of automobiles affects air quality.

Connecting and engaging with residents also means making public services more visible and accessible to everyone. Municipalities in the United States such as Lafayette, Louisiana, have introduced non-emergency municipal service portals that allow residents to receive real-time updates about sanitation, crime, city budgets, and more.

Smart infrastructure case study: Houston, Texas, United States

Houston is undergoing an impressive smart city transformation. The city began working with Microsoft in 2018 to modernize its infrastructure, and its many ongoing initiatives include:

Smart water meters. Around 60 percent of the city’s 500,000 water customers have smart meters, which gather data on water usage every 15 minutes. In the future, this technology will give customers real-time leak alerts and conservation advice.
Proactive roadside air filtration. Bridges along the city’s main overpass are fitted with air quality monitors and air filtration technology, which senses and cleans pollution to prevent it from affecting nearby neighborhoods.
Community sentiment analysis. Houston uses Zencity technology to analyze data from social media and the internet, identifying trending topics to understand residents’ opinions about the city.

Finding smart solutions to traffic problems

Traffic is a big challenge for today’s cities, and it’s an issue that’s always changing. A few years ago, around 30 percent of inner-city traffic was attributed to drivers looking for parking. Today, rideshare services coupled with the growing popularity of one-day delivery services, might be contributing to increased traffic. There are a number of cities who are commissioning studies to look at the impact of these types of services. It’s a challenge for cities – on one hand they want to bring new services to their residents but they are not fully aware of the impact until further down the line.

Smart cities try to tackle traffic congestion in a number of ways, including levying congestion charges or introducing electronic road pricing systems, which are smart tolls that vary according to traffic. Other cities are using technology such as security cameras and smart cars to gather traffic flow data.

Making mobility a priority for residents

Smart cities are also helping residents to get around by offering intelligent transportation services that adapt to their needs, such as route optimization. These services map out specific routes for individual residents, helping them get to their destinations quickly and they are informed by real-time data to help residents avoid delays such as traffic jams.

Growing evidence suggests that these systems encourage residents to use other modes of transportation besides automobiles. For growing cities, this can help reduce the “battle for the curbside” as cars compete to park or drop people off. The challenge for cities, however, is in ensuring that these smart transportation systems are safe and manageable after deployment. This is made easier by digital twin technology, in which cities simulate and virtually test new systems before deploying them.

Smart transportation case study: Auckland, New Zealand

The coastal city of Auckland is home to 1.6 million people, and it’s quickly attracting new residents to its shores. Thanks to its enviable quality of life and strong economy, the city expects its population to double in the next 25 years. This presents many transportation challenges for Auckland, particularly as its narrow shape limits how far its roads can expand.

To tackle these issues, Auckland created a new digital strategy to help residents move around. By using Microsoft cloud platforms, the city gathers data about traffic movement and weather conditions. This information is then used to inform commuters about travel routes and help plan developments in transportation infrastructure.

The city also deployed a range of smart transportation technologies, including traffic lights that react to real-time data. Global Positioning System (GPS) sensors on buses and sensors placed at key points along roads and intersections monitor the flow of automobiles in different areas. The system calculates when specific routes are overcrowded, and it adjusts the wait times at intersections to prevent traffic jams.

Reports indicate that the city’s digital strategy is having a real effect. Drivers are finding parking spaces more easily, citizens are using rail services more, and wait times for public transportation are being reduced significantly.

Next steps

With the ongoing shift toward rapid urbanization, smart cities are currently setting an example for the rest of the world, and people are noticing. In an October 2018 report, IDC FutureScape predicts that “Investment in smart city use cases will reach $158 billion by 2022, with the fastest overall growth in the Americas and the most spending on fixed visual surveillance and public transit.”

As the technology in these initiatives matures, one thing is certain—the cities of the future will put people first.

Want to learn more about how cloud-based technology is helping cities to put people first? Download our e-books Digital transformation in public transportation and Smarter cities start with smart infrastructure: 6 key elements to read about the innovations that are shaping urban life.

Tag: Smart Cities

Smart mobility: 6 solutions helping reduce traffic congestion