Focus on Urban Mobility

In Europe, the percentage of the population           living in urban areas is expected to rise from 73 % in 2000 to approximately 80 % by 2030, meaning that a large and increasing proportion of the population will limit their daily travel to short / medium distances of less than 100 kilometres, often within entirely the urban environment. Particularly relevant to the urban mobility scenarios, the demand for people and goods transportation will further increase over the

Urban and rural population of the world, 1950 - 2030            Source: UN Population Division.

next decades, requiring new solutions to optimise traffic fluidity and energy efficiency, hence reducing congestion and the negative impact of the environment. The challenge is to create a highly-efficient, harmonised urban mobility system by combining all transportation modes in the most convenient way, ensuring sustainability by providing transportation at affordable prices with significantly lower cost to the environment.
For this research area we have identified the following R&D activities:

Advanced driving-assisted vehicles

Driving-assisted vehicles (e.g. Cruise Control, lane keeping functions) have already been introduced to the market and will become widely diffused over the next few years.

Based on this experience, future research activities will focus on the fusion of the various driver assistance functions in order to optimise the potential of all applications overall and maximise comfort and safety for the driver. Embedded in these research activities is also the need to qualify, quantify and to develop different levels of vehicle control and driving assistance with or without vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication including the connection to the ICTinfrastructure. Dedicated research activities are required to develop appropriate, standardised driver–to-vehicle interfaces.

The long-term objective is to improve traffic flow and reduce CO2-emissions within cities. For accurate assessment it is necessary to evaluate the impacts of advanced driving-assisted vehicles on traffic efficiency in specific situations. Primarily of interest are congested areas and intersections requiring simulation of advanced traffic scenarios in selected traffic situations. Legal and liability issues also need to be addressed in this context:

Importantly, even though advanced assistance systems are intended to reduce the complexity of the driving task in difficult traffic situations, the driver will maintain full responsibility for the vehicle at all times.

Energy efficient transport of people and goods with improved logistics

Implementing new ICT technologies for mobility and transport will provide many advantages in the future, including the opportunity to optimise the efficiency of the modes of transport which together comprise the traffic system by better utilising its full capacity. For both passenger and goods transportation, the aim is to improve traffic fluidity, reduce congestion and hence decrease CO2-emissions. Additionally, new customer services can be developed and introduced to the market.

Regarding mobility in city centres, where large numbers of people can be moved together and public transport already offers an important option for many, further research should focus on the optimisation of multi-modal transportation systems extending to the wider urban and suburban areas which integrate a range of transportation modes including private vehicles and other solutions for individual mobility. The objective is to fully exploit the existing potential in terms of maximising the range and quality of services provided, particularly in terms of flexibility, time-efficiency and safety, while minimising traffic, congestion and the impact on the environment.

In combination with the new ICT-technologies, novel solutions will aim at achieving the full potential offered, such as new car pooling and advanced sharing systems, as well as optimising the interfaces between modes for individual mobility and public transport.

Correspondingly research will focus on the most efficient use of passenger cars, buses, light commercial vehicles and trucks for the transportation of people and goods inside urban areas to identify the areas of potential improvement. System aspects concerning the linking together of vehicles, infrastructure and public transport operations must be considered, also as regards greater operational flexibility by adopting a modular data-exchange approach.

Whereas for the long distance transportation of goods, fully-loaded trains and large trucks offer advantages in terms of efficiency, as concerns the transportation of goods inside urban areas, light commercial vehicles and trucks will continue to play a fundamental role: Research is required to address specific needs to analyse and improve efficiency covering in particular:

•  goods logistics,

• multi-purpose and modular vehicles optimised for the goods transport mission,

• interface between urban and inter-urban goods transport (i.e. green corridors and goods transhipment at terminals).

Safety of urban road transport

This research field focuses on             identifying and analysing all options to increase safety within the urban environment, integrating vehicle and infrastructure issues, and adressing the need to improve protection of the vulnerable road users.
	Future assistance system will also offer safety for vulnerable road users  in urban environments.

Traffic Management

Vehicle manufactures have identified the need for a more effective approach to urban planning for improved mobility and transport also with respect to freight transport and logistics.

The automotive industry is actively participating in the definition of harmonised solutions and standards including smart ITS applications which will play a fundamental part in offering intelligent and smart multi-modal solutions for the urban mobility and transportation system of the future, the aim being to enable smooth traffic flow and easier access to cities for citizens whether they choose to use mass passenger solutions or vehicles for individual mobility.

In order to achieve common solutions for the urban traffic management in Europe, analyses of different scenarios should show how urban traffic could be organised in a more efficient way, e.g. traffic information, traffic guidance, “green waves”, etc. The focus should be on sharing and optimising the use of existing road transport infrastructure, in particular through the use of dedicated lanes and delivery zones, bus stops, micro-goods terminals and intermodal passenger terminals. Achieving this goal will require the collaboration of different stakeholders within an integrated approach.

Market implementation of innovation

The implementation of new solutions and   innovative urban mobility concepts require   co‑operation between a large number of   different stakeholders. Furthermore it is   essential to introduce all salient business   issues already at an early stage in the    R&D process in order to ensure that   concepts and developments are viable to   enable market introduction at a later stage.   An integrated approach is fundamental to   success, requiring the collaboration of all   stakeholders concerned, which is based   on balancing the value chain and sharing   responsibility, risks, costs and benefits   appropriately among all involved.

Aiming towards a better quality of urban traffic - the implementation of ICT technologies offers a variety of innovative solutions.

As part of the process to identify the most appropriate route to market implementation, field operational testing and large demonstrations represent a feasible way to analyse the entire value chain in terms of relative costs on one hand and the benefits and acceptance of the customer on the other. Through practical implementation on a limited, easily-manageable scale, it is possible to identify any adjustments necessary so as to ensure a positive market implementation of the innovative solutions.