Digitalisation facilitates mobility changes
Not since the invention of the automobile has transportation undergone such rapid and profound changes as those affecting mobility today.
Intelligent vehicles, innovations in the fields of automatic and interconnected driving, steadily growing cityscapes, road maintenance, increasing pressure on cities and automobile companies to combat air pollution, trends towards increased bicycle use and walking, as well as growing acceptance for ride-sharing and electric vehicles are just some of the topics affecting mobility today and in the years to come.
Interconnection is the future
Connecting cars to their environment, surrounding infrastructure and even to each other creates new opportunities for information gathering that far exceed those of the recent past. In the near future, communication will take place between automobiles ('vehicle-to-vehicle' or V2V), between vehicles and infrastructure (V2I), and between vehicles and IT back-ends and control centres (V2B).
The term Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) summarises all these applications of modern digital technologies.
Benefits
These new technologies have the potential to make traffic safer, cleaner and more efficient. Inner-city transportation is is bound to become significantly simpler thanks to:
- Improved construction site coordination with new planning software
- App-facilitated smart-parking, enabling drivers to find and pay for parking online
- Intelligent traffic lights which count down the seconds until turning red
- Improved access to public transportation information via a connected mobility platform and app
- Smart lockers for parcel pickup reducing delivery-related traffic and improving pickup flexibility
The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg has already broken ground on several projects, while others are currently being developed and promoted. The senate’s ITS Strategy was ratified in April 2016 and serves as a basis for these developments.