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

  • Smarter mapping makes for more informed decisions
    December 2, 2016
    Following his keynote presentation at the 2016 ITS World Congress in Melbourne, ITS International caught up with Esri founder Jack Dangermond. It is getting close to half a century ago that Jack Dangermond and his wife Laura founded the Environmental Research Systems Institute – known today as Esri - of which he remains president.
  • Ports are facing a digital sea-change
    March 24, 2021
    Next-generation cellular will revolutionise the ports and maritime sector. Its arrival is just in time, as the industry faces a variety of challenges which require new technological solutions
  • Kapsch’s scalable tolling back office accepts mixed feeds
    September 15, 2014
    Arno Klamminger and Wolfgang Fleischer from Kapsch’s ETC Business Unit outline a new back office solution which addresses the ongoing changes in the road user charging sector. The rapidly increasing scale of some Road User Charging (RUC) schemes, both current and proposed, presents systems developers and manufacturers with significant opportunities in terms of product sales. However, it also presents them with significant challenges - and size is but one part – as at regional, national and international lev
  • Kerb your enthusiasm, warns Passport
    March 4, 2019
    Dynamic kerbside management is crucial if urban authorities are to address increasingly chaotic situations caused by the gig economy and mobility innovation, says Adam Warnes at Passport Demand for the kerbside is growing and changing and it’s no surprise when you consider the recent innovations within the mobility industry. For starters, there are new modes of transport, including ride-shares, electric vehicles (EVs), dockless cycles, last-mile consolidations and autonomous vehicles (AVs). Secondly, the