IoT and Mobility: The space for Public Transportation
As data-based models are playing an increasing role in mobility, local authorities and operators are looking for ways to adapt to new needs and offers. The implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) and the creation of a unified platform can help the public transportation sector face current challenges and navigate the increasingly complex ecosystem. Victoire Couëlle tells us more.
The disruption of mobility experienced over the past year has accelerated IoT implementation within mobility. Ranging from automated vehicles, smart transport systems and platform mobility, we estimate 50 billion devices to be connected to the IoT by 2022, generating over 1.3 zettabytes of data.
As industries are exploring the opportunities offered by the IoT to generate revenue and growth, local authorities can implement these technologies to overcome public transportation’s economic, social, and infrastructural challenges. Cities have already begun exploring the potential of IoT, implementing innovative technology solutions within the public transportation sector, and paving the way for an interconnected network able to effectively respond to citizens mobility needs.
Optimizing Transport Network Infrastructure
Credits: LEAD
Providing seamless and sustainable public mobility is a serious challenge for local authorities. Aging or inadequate public transport infrastructure can create additional pressure to already overburdened systems, causing major logistical challenges. The implementation of a unified IoT platform that coordinates various transit systems can help operators maximize transport efficiency while cutting on costs.
Similarly to the private mobility sector, local authorities can utilize IoT systems to develop a direct and interactive relation with passengers and change the way we access public transportation services. Sensors can be integrated on a single platform to provide passengers with real time information on the status of buses, trains and metros.
For instance, the City of Vienna, ranked as one of the best performing public transportation systems, has implemented IoT across its 850 km transportation network. All public mobility services are easily accessible on the mobile app ‘Quando’, which provides users with updates on departure and arrival times of buses, trams, and subways at different locations.
The adoption of a unified platform facilitates the usability but also makes predictive maintenance of public transit possible. IoT systems are able to monitor different parameters of infrastructure and vehicles, allowing us to identify problems before they emerge and disrupt the network. IoT platform can collect and coordinate all the information indicative of the system’s overall health, ranging from the engine’s temperature, battery level, tire pressure and stress on railway tracks.
The adoption of IoT thus gives public transport the opportunity to reduce passenger uncertainty, by providing a more interactive, efficient, and integrated ecosystem.
Towards A New Model?
The implementation of work from home measures, social distancing and travel bans have considerably impacted our lifestyles and mobility behaviours, accelerating the shift away from traditional mobility. If restrictions are gradually being relaxed, public transportation will continue to face the challenges of new mobility needs and an increasingly complex ecosystem. Users are now looking for mobility alternatives that can adapt to their own needs, rather than having to adjust themselves.
This shift towards a demand-driven model comports many challenges for which we need to adopt a new mindset and tools. If public transportation has traditionally been low-tech, digital platforms and data-driven models can help the sector adopt a more flexible framework. The implementation of IoT platforms can support local authorities and public transport operators, recover user’s trust, establish a direct relation with commuters and support interoperability.
Credits: SPROUT
This integration will be crucial to maintain public transportation up-to-date and competitive in the market. Now more than ever, public transit needs to be responsive to citizens' needs. Data-driven models make it possible to provide a mobility offer that is tailored to new and constantly evolving demand. Their usage ensures a deployment of transit that maximizes efficiency, both in urban centres and low-density areas. Fleet management can be enhanced with intelligent dispatching, real time incident response and asset monitoring. The logistical complexity of managing vast fleets, across multiple countries and supply chains can be simplified by combining IoT applications. This allows to fluidly interconnected business solutions, built to suit specific fleet and customer needs.
Towards greener, safer, more equal urban mobility
The implementation of a unified platform easily accessible to users though an application, can improve usability and reduces user’s uncertainty - Credits: Unsplash
The adoption of IoT in public transportation enables authorities to implement a highly efficient, commuter-friendly, and convenient system, which also supports the shift away from privately-owned vehicles. The reduction of private cars on roads leads to valuable benefits for urban and rural centres on multiple aspects. A city that increases its usage of public transportation, significantly cuts down on its carbon footprint, but also experiences noticeable improvements in terms of congestion and road safety.
As urban planners are looking for ways to make cities safer and more sustainable, IoT seems to offer a simple and efficient way to achieve such objectives. This implementation will not come naturally as it will require considerable efforts from local authorities to ensure citizen’s trust and ensure effective dialogue with the private sector. The cities of Paris, Eindhoven, Gothenburg, Montpellier, Vienna, Hanover and Barcelona have all successfully implemented IoT in their local mobility network, ranging from online payment alternatives to the creation of an integrated public transportation that supports seamless multimodal mobility.
Coordination, planning and concrete dialogue with different actors will be crucial to overcome obstacles and develop a sustainable, socially viable and flexible public transportation model, able to evolve with citizens' needs. By ensuring seamless transitions, real-time information, and a flexible model able to adapt to evolving demand, public transportation will play a crucial role in achieving smart and sustainable cities.
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About LEAD
The LEAD project will create Digital Twins of urban logistics networks in six TEN-T urban nodes (Madrid, The Hague, Lyon, Budapest, Oslo, Porto), to support experimentation and decision making with on-demand logistics operations in a public-private urban setting. Digital Twins are a digital replica of a complex real-world urban environment that represents different processes, actors, and their interaction.
More information here.
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About SPROUT
The rapid emergence of new business models, new technologies, and disruptive innovations in urban mobility represents a considerable challenge for policymaking. Previously tested policy responses are not always adequate to address current transition, which is where SPROUT (Sustainable Policy RespOnse to Urban Mobility Transition) comes into action. This H2020 Project puts cities at the heart of the urban mobility transition. By building on the solutions to urban mobility challenges - related to both passenger transport and urban freight logistics - the work of SPROUT is focused on producing new and practice-based knowledge and tools. Such knowledge and tools will contribute to an evidence-based and innovative policy response to disruptive innovations in mobility.
More information here.
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About the author
Victoire Couëlle was Communications Assistant at POLIS Network.
Credits: Unsplash