IBM imagines a smarter planet with smarter transportation
March 4, 2010By Sean Barry
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| “The systemic nature of urban transportation is also the key to its solution. We need to stop focusing only on pieces of the problem: adding a new bridge, widening a road, putting up signs, establishing commuter lanes, encouraging carpooling or deploying traffic copters. |
| Instead, we need to look at relationships across the entire system—and all the other systems that are touched by it: our supply chains, our environment, our companies…the way people and cities live and work. Traffic isn’t just a line of cars: it’s a web of connections. |
| ‘Smart traffic’ isn’t yet the norm—but it’s not some far-off vision of tomorrow. In many places, IBM is helping to make it happen today.” |
| From IBM’s Smarter Traffic page. |
Perhaps you’ve seen the IBM commercials touting the fact that for the first time in history, the majority of humanity lives in cities — and solving the challenges facing our growing cities will be more urgent than ever before. One of the 21 programs of IBM’s “Smarter Planet” initiative focuses on traffic, congestion and what’s known as Intelligent Transportation Systems. (Others include cities, buildings and infrastructure.)
Last week, a forum sponsored by IBM as part of their Smarter Planet series that focused on improving transportation systems through technology yielded important lessons from some of our European counterparts.
Two speakers – Dr. Leo Kroon of Netherlands Railway and Gunnar Soderholm of Stockholm, Sweden – were among the highlights of “A Smarter Transportation System for the 21st Century,” held on Capitol Hill last Thursday.
Kroon described the importance of rail in his “tiny country,” whose 16 million people make it extremely dense. According to Kroon, rail market share between some Dutch cities reaches 50 percent, an amount that would be unheard of in the United States. And rather than force anyone onto the train, Kroon says the Netherlands Railways “seduces” them instead, through continued technological improvement that makes travel convenient and a commitment to reliability and affordability.
For instance, Netherlands Railway has introduced a SmartCard system and is improving its monitoring systems to pinpoint its flow of passengers and accommodate them as efficiently as possible.
The report out of Stockholm was even more compelling.
Gunnar Soderholm, head of the city’s Environmental and Health division, explained how a congestion charging scheme went from “biggest political suicide ever in Sweden” to embraced by even the most right-wing parties. The policy itself was made easier to implement than other cities because Stockholm proper is composed of several islands, with easy boundaries around the central business district.
After implementing the policy – in which drivers are charged for bringing autos into the business district during peak hours – the conventional wisdom was that people would need to see numbers showing its impact. According to Soderholm, no numbers were needed. Everyone could see the difference. “It was free flow all the time,” he said. Stockholm saw a 20 percent reduction in traffic, a 30-50 percent reduction in travel time and a 10-14 percent reduction in carbon emissions. Many more Stockholm residents are combining auto use with more walking and bicycling. Revenues from the charge are directed toward transportation infrastructure.
Stockholm is aiming to be fossil fuel free by 2050.
Innovations are also underway here at home. Judge Quentin Kopp, a decades-long transit advocate and former chairman of the California High Speed Rail Authority, explained how his home state has pledged to match dollar-for-dollar every piece of stimulus funding for high-speed rail. Kopp has been on the frontlines of the cause from the beginning, battling with former Republican Gov. Pete Wilson over a commission and, just two years ago, helping to shepherd narrow passage of a statewide ballot measure to fund high speed rail in the State.
Congressman Earl Blumenauer, a Portland Democrat, concluded with a window into how innovation and technology can guide efforts on the Hill. The big question: how does Congress pay for the next transportation bill? Blumenauer is an advocate of a vehicle-miles-traveled-tax and has pushed legislation to allow pilot projects across the country.
There remains great potential to both learn from our friends abroad and build upon successes here at home.
(Graphic below from Smarter Planet’s Transportation page.)
Can we cut the carbon emissions from transportation in half by 2050?
July 30, 2009By Stephen Lee Davis
If we’re serious about reducing CO2 emissions, with nearly a third (28%) of our greenhouse gas emissions coming from the transportation sector, the question won’t be should we try to get cuts from transportation, but rather, what cuts can we get from transportation? Moving Cooler, a new report released this week by a collection of groups, studies that question in depth and demonstrates how we can clean the atmosphere while also reducing our oil dependency, expanding our options for living and getting around and making transportation more affordable overall.
T4 America is currently focused on making sure that a share of revenues generated by the climate bill will be directed into cleaner transportation choices, but there’s been some question about exactly which strategies and investments will be the best bet for getting the cuts we need to meet our ambitious targets.
Building on the 2008 release of Growing Cooler, which showed how increases in driving and population would wipe out gains in fuel mileage technology, Moving Cooler makes the case that we need to look beyond the idea that newer, more efficient cars or low-carbon fuels will be enough on their own to achieve the big reductions we’ll need to meet our targets. What other strategies can we employ to get there from here?
The report looks at “bundles” of different techniques for reducing emissions from transportation — like road pricing, intelligent transportation systems, increased public transportation, pay-as-you-drive insurance, and making walking and biking safer and more convenient, to name a few — and finds that we could cut transportation emissions by as much as 47 percent if we employed all the tools examined in Moving Cooler.
Implementing some of these strategies would help cut emissions, but also provide Americans with numerous other benefits.
Offering more good options for living and getting around while using less oil will reduce our individual and national vulnerability to disruptions in either the oil supply or the climate. Giving more people the opportunity to drive less to accomplish daily tasks is essential to any long-lasting strategy. The best message from this report is that we can increase personal choice and freedom without imposing unnecessary hardships.
Growing Cooler showed that people living in more efficient, less automobile dependent environments drive about a third less, on average. Meeting the growing demand for more housing and travel choices would reduce driving and become a significant factor in fighting climate change.
Moving Cooler shows how a combination of public investment and market forces can unleash the private sector to help reduce our carbon footprint and reduce oil dependency by giving people the types of transportation choices they are increasingly looking for.
A smarter transportation system begins with smarter technology
May 7, 2009By Andrew Bielak
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| Singapore’s congestion pricing system |
When filmmakers envision the future of our transportation system, they often seem to come up with one enduring image — millions of layers of flying cars breezing effortlessly through impossibly dense cities, surrounded by mile-high skyscrapers.
There’s a good chance the future may not look quite so, well, futuristic. But that doesn’t mean that advanced computer technology — namely, wireless networks known as Intelligent Transportation Systems that feed through our transportation infrastructure — won’t have a huge role to play in helping move people and goods safer, more efficiently, and with less pollution in the 21st Century.
As this recent article from the New York Times makes clear, Intelligent Transportation Systems, or ITS, are becoming increasingly valuable tools for governments looking to better manage transportation networks without increasing capacity, and important investment opportunities for private companies who help develop these systems.
We can’t just pave our way out of congestion, but better technology can help us better utilize the system that we have now and maximize capacity — without always having to resort to costly new infrastructure.
When applied to our roads, bridges, transit systems, and rails, ITS can be as simple as the tolling booths that photograph license plates to allow drivers to pass straight through tolls and pay at a later date, or as complex as computer sensors installed on railroad tracks to better monitor and navigate the movement of freight.
(Continue Reading)
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The United States of Transit Cutbacks
Driving is down and transit ridership is at record highs. Yet transit agencies across the country are considering layoffs, service cuts and fare hikes. Find out more and learn what you can do to help at t4america.org/transitcuts
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