The previous article in this series explored the hypothesis of measuring mobility sustainability performance through the combination of public and connected mobility data, introducing the model underlying the Sustainable Mobility Dashboard by OCTO and The European House – Ambrosetti: a tool for administrations to measure and assess mobility sustainability performance within cities and, ultimately, for governance as a whole.
With this article, we report the outcomes of the discussion that took place during the first Working Table of the Territorial Roadshow in Naples. In line with the initiative ‘The Italian Way to Connected Mobility‘, the objective of the Working Table was to present the work plan for the third year, contextualise the topic of connected mobility in the context of the sustainability of cities, and discuss the objectives of the dashboard measuring the sustainability indicators of mobility by OCTO and The European House – Ambrosetti. The involvement of the stakeholders of the mobility ecosystem, private companies, public administrations, research centres and universities is considered fundamental in order to discuss the typical peculiarities and priorities of the territory, collect feedback and indications, and promote opportunities for comparison to foster the synergic development of initiatives for the dissemination of innovation in urban mobility.
The first meeting of the Territorial Roadshow was held in Naples, a city that won the MaaS for Italy call for tenders and has a strong propensity for innovation thanks to its collaboration with the prestigious San Giovanni a Teduccio Pole of the Federico II University, which was also the venue for the Roadshow. Naples is not only the southern metropolitan city with the largest population but also the most densely populated nationwide (2519 inhabitants per km2), ranking third in Italy among the seven metropolitan cities that concentrate more than a third of the regional population. Because of this, the city’s mobility extends to the surrounding territories with a very high percentage of commuting (37.5% of trips are made outside the municipality).
In this context, developments in Connected Mobility enable a radical rethinking of urban mobility by making relevant data and information available to measure mobility flows with different perspectives: traffic congestion, air pollution and accidents, which, in conjunction with public and demographic data, help to better define the context and give a true representation of private mobility as a complementary element to information on public mobility and thus crucial to support decision-makers in mobility policies and infrastructure planning.
Indeed, the technology behind Connected Mobility has evolved steadily over time and today enables an evolution in urban area management models from ‘access inhibition’ systems to the possibility of creating green spaces or restricted traffic areas – the latter based on flexible access management that considers citizens’ needs and individual behaviour. By using technologies that are already widespread for connected vehicles (e.g. black boxes, natively connected cars, or recently even using specific smartphone apps), each motorist can learn about the driving style and be encouraged to drive in a more virtuous manner, both environmentally and in terms of road safety, and thus contribute responsibly to reducing the impact of the use of private vehicles, which are very often outdated.
As argued by OCTO and The European House – Ambrosetti in the ‘Italian Way to Connected Mobility’, mobility data enable the Vision Zero – Zero Accidents, Zero Traffic, Zero Pollution – to be put into action through the ability to measure the impact of private mobility.
The data, for example, can provide information on accidents in real time, reducing the estimated time of arrival of emergency services and roadside removal personnel. Through real-time mobility mapping, it is also possible to suggest alternative road routes to citizens, which avoid congestion and reduce pollution.
Among other applications, data from connected vehicles allow the precise location of where cars are parked and identify the attractiveness of an area. Data on the distance travelled by people entering a city, on the other hand, allow planning the distribution of charging infrastructure for electric vehicles, as well as the energy capacity required.
In order to realise an extended Smart City- i.e. a new city development model that integrates new technologies not only within the city itself, but also in the broader perimeter and peripheral context – it is crucial to promote collaboration between private and public players. Onthe one hand, companies play a key role in introducing technology, but only the sharing of their capabilities in a logic of coopetition and cooperation will enable the community to fully exploit its benefits; on the other hand, cities and infrastructures are managed by public players, who play a key role in orchestrating and setting up new citizen services based on innovative technologies.
Among the results that emerged during the Working Table, the opportunity to make road accident data available to public administrations was also highlighted, to enable the development of ad hoc actions for accident mitigation. Thanks to millions of connected vehicles, OCTO can pinpoint the time and location of accidents with extreme precision, and this information enables urban mobility administrators to understand the areas of greatest risk and identify the risk factors that cause such accidents.
To achieve a Smart City, moreover, it has become clear that freight transport, as well as passenger transport, cannot be ignored. If we consider the city of London, heavy goods vehicles are involved in 63% of fatal collisions with cyclists and 25% of fatal collisions with pedestrians. This figure is even more significant if we consider that HGVs in the city of London cover only 4% of the kilometres travelled.
To ensure a quality service to the citizen, the need to consider the interdependence between different transport systems is emphasised. Again, data from connected mobility make it possible to identify at which times of the day and on which sections of the road public transport is saturated, by acting on its frequency. The benefit is twofold: on the one hand, the user experiences a better service; on the other hand, the transport company achieves savings in terms of maintenance, labour and energy used.
During the Working Table, the need to introduce smart, sustainable and accessible mobility solutions that start from the citizen’s needs and are inclusive also emerged. It is also crucial to address the needs for synergic development of a city’s mobility models. For example, the City of Naples – which has seen a significant growth in the flow of tourists over the last 10 years – needs to develop and introduce a tool to optimally manage flows from the airport, port and train station. To build a traffic control and management tool, it is then essential that data from these sources are intersected with data from private vehicle and public transport flows. As demonstrated by OCTO and The European House – Ambrosetti as early as 2022, only by combining the different data sources is it possible to develop an optimal traffic management system for a city.
Moreover, through connected mobility data, it is possible to impact citizens’ habits. For example, knowing in real time the timetables of transport company fleets, citizens could be incentivised to change their habits, reducing car use in favour of public transport. Mobility management models based on the city’s real time information, on everyone’s awareness of his or her own driving style, as a result of algorithms capable of detecting the eco-driving behaviour that the city can provide to the citizen, allows for a shared responsibility management of improvement policies where each citizen, with his or her daily actions, contributes to improving the liveability of cities.
Finally, it follows that the data has a strong potential, both from an economic and regulatory point of view. The results of the data analysis of the raw data of connected mobility make it possible to reduce the negative externalities of mobility within cities (accidents, traffic and pollution) and optimise the management of vehicle fleets.
This article summarised the main results that emerged during the Working Table in Naples, which took place on 22 June. The activity of the Territorial Roadshow does not end here and foresees two more stops: the first in Florence and the second in Modena. The next article in this series will therefore be devoted to illustrating the results that will emerge at the second Working Table (Florence), with the aim of continuing to promote moments of confrontation between the public and private sectors to foster the development of the ‘Italian Way to Connected Mobility’.
Author:
The European House – Ambrosetti