Skip to main content

‘Intelligent transportation key technology enabler of smart cities’

New research by ABI indicates that by 2025, penetration of ITS technologies in smart cities will range from 20 per cent (autonomous vehicles) to 98 per cent (traffic management). With more than two-thirds of the global population expected to live in urban contexts by 2050, the deployment of smart cities technologies and intelligent transportation services in particular, will become key policy areas for local governments. While numerous smart city projects are currently testing or deploying multimodal tr
March 13, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
New research by ABI indicates that by 2025, penetration of ITS technologies in smart cities will range from 20 per cent (autonomous vehicles) to 98 per cent (traffic management). With more than two-thirds of the global population expected to live in urban contexts by 2050, the deployment of smart cities technologies and intelligent transportation services in particular, will become key policy areas for local governments.

While numerous smart city projects are currently testing or deploying multimodal transportation, traffic management, adaptive traffic signalling, transit ticketing and smart parking payment solutions, the focus will shift to urban tolling and freight systems to address rampant congestion and pollution issues, especially in developing regions. However, more structural approaches based on eMobility, cooperative ITS and V2I, autonomous vehicles, and widespread adoption of car sharing and on-demand taxis will be needed by the start of the next decade to cope with the unstoppable urbanisation trend,” says VP and practice director, Dominique Bonte.

Meanwhile, inter-vertical technologies such as Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) will be required to realize the synergies offered by an urban IoT strategy. In this respect, it is essential city governments and technology providers adopt holistic approaches maximizing the combined effect of technologies within and across the energy, transportation, communication, education, retail, construction, public services, and healthcare verticals in order to unlock the full potential of smart cities in terms of sustainability, quality of life, efficiency, and economic growth.

Unfortunately, many smart city projects remain fragmented and/or hijacked for gaining political capital on the back of public funding, especially in Europe. Other issues include complexity, high costs, lack of standards, reluctance to share data, and privacy concerns. For the smart cities conundrum to emerge as a viable concept, it will have to emancipate and leave its old heritage behind.

Related Content

  • RFID market will be worth over $70 billion over next five years
    April 17, 2012
    The market for RFID transponders, readers, software, and services will generate US$70.5 billion from 2012 to the end of 2017. The market was boosted by a growth of $900 million in 2011 and the market is expected to grow 20 per cent YOY per annum. Government, retail, and transportation and logistics have been identified as the most valuable sectors, accounting for 60 per cent of accumulated revenue over the next five years. “To date, the automotive sector has been a strong proponent of RFID, largely for immo
  • Harmonisation of Europe's ITS deployment still unbalanced
    January 31, 2012
    Dean Herenda, Chairman of the EasyWay project, talks about the progress made and the progress still to be made in harmonising ITS deployment across the European Union. "The deployment and use of ITS in road transport across Europe was and still is unbalanced" Although Europe can be proud of being home to some of the world's most advanced ITS solutions, the relative disparities between Member States of the European Union (EU) in terms of the extent and technological sophistication of deployments actually sta
  • Dutch survey shows drivers are in favour of road user charging
    January 16, 2012
    'Keep it simple, stupid' is an oft-forgotten axiom but in terms of road user charging it is entirely appropriate. So says the ANWB's Ferry Smith. A couple of decades ago, it might have been largely true that the technology aspects of advanced road infrastructure were the main obstacles to deployment. However, 20 years or more of development have led to a situation where such 'obstacles' are often no more than a political fig-leaf. Area-wide Road User Charging (RUC) is a case in point; speak candidly to syst
  • Commercial telematics shipments set for solid growth
    April 18, 2012
    At a CAGR of 27 per cent, commercial telematics systems shipments are set for solid growth. However, the fleet management industry continues to be haunted by structural problems: extreme levels of fragmentation with too many ‘me too’ and ‘dots-on-a-map’ providers and proprietary solutions littering the landscape.