48 minute read
Cross-border connectivity
Cross-border connectivity
Advanced 5G networks herald a new era of vehicle connectivity, but border crossings could create coverage blackspots where safety is compromised – a particular problem in urban settings and for long-distance platooning.
This is why new EU research projects are looking to ensure seamless network handovers
Words | Jack Roper
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Baltic innovation could help to deliver the crossborder connectivity required for transnational connected and autonomous mobility (CAM) corridors across Europe’s patchwork of frontiers. A 5G testbed established by Latvian telecoms operator LMT will become the region’s first cross-border simulation space as part of the EU-funded 5G-Routes project. This collaboration between Latvia, Estonia and Finland will enable vehicles traversing the Baltic corridor to transition seamlessly between national 5G networks as a prelude to pan-European roll-out.
LMT is already renowned for 4G innovation and network efficiency and believes 5G will usher in a mobileonly future. “We are not just a telecoms company,” says LMT’s mobility innovation lead, Artūrs Lindenbergs. “We look at many verticals and 5G will provide totally new opportunities to build services and ecosystems.”
LMT is working on 5G-enabled beyond-visible-line-ofsight (BVLOS) drone operation and recently conducted a teleoperated vehicle demonstration. “Connected and
Above: Latvian network operator Latvijas Mobilais Telefons (LMT) has set up a 5G mobility innovation testbed at the Bikernieki racetrack in the capital city of Riga autonomous vehicles (CAVs) are not in the future – because we’ve seen them working already,” says Lindenbergs. “It’s just a question of when it will escalate onto the roads.”
Collaborative testing
In 2021, LMT launched its 5G mobility testbed at
Riga’s Biķernieki racetrack [see On the right track, opposite], which is owned by Latvia’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD). It will foster innovation by allowing Latvian and other developers to test 5G-based services on a noncommercial network. “Startups don’t have the resource of a closed-track with 5G for drive-by-wire vehicles,” says Lindenbergs. “Rather than sit in their offices, now the public sector, academic institutes and companies can collaborate to innovate and deploy new features much faster.”
For Lindenbergs, 5G is not merely an evolution of 4G, but an entirely different technology representing a new paradigm for mobility services. “4G is a best-effort network, which makes vehicle connectivity possible but gives operators no way to guarantee services,” he says. “But 5G network-slicing will allow us to totally guarantee the services we provide.”
For the first time, 5G also offers potential for the seamless cross-border network transitions
which 5G-Routes will explore. Preliminary to this, LMT demonstrated its 5G remote driving capability in August 2021.
“It was the first use-case we showed at Biķernieki,” says Lindenbergs. “We were able to drive a car from another city over the existing 5G network.” A Kia e-Soul electric vehicle equipped with 5G and drive-by-wire hardware was successfully controlled from Cēsis, 80km to the northeast.
“In Cēsis, we had remote controls with a wheel and a display showing camera-feeds from the car,” explains Lindenbergs. “Everything worked smoothly and there was a chance for everyone to have a go at remote driving.”
Public safety
The Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD) is invested in such experiments, both as custodians of Biķernieki and of Latvian road safety. “Before
On the right track
The historic Biķernieki Racetrack is an ideal testbed for connected vehicle technologies
In its 1970s heyday, Biķernieki was the Soviet Union’s premier motorsport venue. In 1958, motorcycle racers Eduard Kiope and Kārlis Ošiņš embarked on a tour of Soviet racing tracks to determine what made a good circuit before selecting the site. Biķernieki held its first car and motorcycle races in July 1966 – with Kiope and Ošiņš winning the two-wheeled events.
“Biķernieki has great traditions,” says Latvia’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate (CSDD) board member, Aivars Aksenoks. “It has many different configurations: for drift-driving, rallycross, motorcycles and speedway. Although close to the city of Riga, it may be the world’s only racing track located in a forest.”
Kiope and Ošiņš identified the site because it was close to Riga’s population, while the forest would serve to reduce noise nuisance and hazardous crosswinds. Biķernieki’s 3.6km Ring of Skill was designed for motorcyclists and its 3.7km Speed Ring for cars. Its variety of different curves and gradients and the absence of long straights demand a high level of skill from racing drivers.
In 1991, Latvian independence followed a period of Soviet economic decline during which Biķernieki fell into disrepair. “It was in very poor condition,” Aksenoks recalls. “Nobody was in charge, so the Transport Ministry asked us to take responsibility.”
“Our main task is traffic safety,” he says. “We provide technical inspections, vehicle registration and driver qualification. Ten years ago, we also became responsible for Biķernieki and invested in its reconstruction.” Since 2011, CSDD has restored Biķernieki’s speedway track and grandstands, rebuilt its race control building, renewed its curbs and repaved sections of track.
“Lately, Biķernieki has hosted high-level competitions including the World Rallycross Championship,” says Aksenoks. “LMT evaluated the advantages of the site as a 5G testbed and we started our collaboration four years ago.”
Borders across Europe
The Latvian project is just part of a much larger research movement across Europe looking to develop seamless 5G networks. Another EU-funded undertaking, looking at tsimilar challenges is 5G-Mobix
The EU-funded 5G-Mobix project is focused on developing 5G use cases in transportation, in particular enabling 5G functionality across borders.
EU countries and industry first agreed to establish cross-border 5G corridors in September 2017. Thanks to these 5G corridors, Europe is now leading the world in testing 5G technology for connected and automated driving and mobility. 5G-Mobix is testing automated vehicle functionalities using 5G core technological innovations along two live cross-border corridors and a number of local trial sites, under varying conditions of vehicular traffic, network coverage and service demand.
One of the real-world trial sites is the border crossing between Ipsala Turkey and the Greek town of Kipoi. At this border crossing, there is a customs area, where administrative procedures and x-ray checks on passing vehicles are performed, and innovations such as truck platooning and assisted border crossing are being implemented as a part of the trial.
The other real-world border corridor test site is between Portugal and Spain and six pre-deployment trial sites are in Germany, China, Finland, France, South Korea and the Netherlands.
“This project is important because automated mobility is necessary for the future in order to meet our demands for efficiency and sustainability. To make this happen, cooperative mobility needs multiple actors from industry to solve the potential challenges,” says Nazli Guney of Turkcell, one of the project partners at the Turkey-Greece crossing,.“Lately, Biķernieki has hosted high-level competitions including the World Rallycross Championship,” says Aksenoks. “LMT evaluated the advantages of the site as a 5G testbed and we started our collaboration four years ago.”
Right: A Kia Soul EV equipped with 5G and drive-by-wire hardware was one of the first vehicles to be tested by LMT at its new testbed autonomous vehicles (AVs) can drive on the streets, they must be tested on a racetrack or some similar, closed territory,” says CSDD board member, Aivars Aksenoks. “We sometimes have different views: LMT professionals want to test AVs on the roads as soon as possible, but we prefer to be sure.”
Latvia’s Transport Ministry only recently issued regulations to allow even off-road tests. “In the event of some danger, the driver must instantly be able to take control,” says Aksenoks. “We’re interested in cross-border connectivity, because the moment vehicles change between two networks is potentially dangerous. Unless it works properly, accidents could occur.”
“Crossing the border, it can take a few minutes to register on the other country’s network,” says Lindenbergs. “People can wait a minute to send an SMS or make a call, but we can’t have a situation where cars lose connection for even a few seconds.”
Aivars Aksenoks, board member, CSDD (Latvia’s Road Traffic Safety Directorate)
Above: LMT’s 5G mobility testbed will foster innovation by allowing Latvian and other developers to test 5G-based services on a noncommercial network
5G-Routes will create a virtual border at Biķernieki by combining the 5G networks of LMT and Estonian telecom operator, Telia. “There will be a handover connectivity between the two standalone networks,” says Lindenbergs. “It means we can test cross-border use cases and validate technical solutions.” Once proven at Biķernieki, the technology will proceed to fieldtests in Valka-Valga.
A historic border
After World War I, Latvia fought a War of Independence against Soviet and later German forces, backed by Estonia, Poland and the Western Allies. When fighting concluded in 1920, Valka in Latvia and Valga in Estonia were separated by the border between two new Baltic states. “In Valka-Valga, we can validate use-cases in real conditions in a city between two cities, two countries and two networks,” says Lindenbergs. “Of course, our focus is not only on Valka-Valga, but on how to deploy cross-border connectivity across the whole of Europe.”
Lindenbergs anticipates 5G deployment on key routes by 2024, with end-user CAM services coming online from 2025. But what these will be remains a matter of guesswork. “Early-stage 5G networks are currently based on Release 15, with limited features for CAM,” he says.
The nature of services, their pricing and whether mobile network operators (MNOs) or traffic authorities will provide them all need working out. “If somebody knows the answers, I will give them a bonus!” says Lindenbergs. “Platooning is a key use-case; in each country, it could proceed case-by-case.”In Valka-Valga, we can validate use-cases in real conditions in a city between two cities, two countries and two networks
Future use cases
For traffic authorities, a mobile-only future offers considerable promise. “It will be easier to deploy intelligent transport solutions based on mobile networks, because you will no longer
SERNIS
5G vs V2V in the Netherlands
Collision avoidance is a further promise of 5G technology – but will latency levels be low enough to ensure safety? At the 5G-Mobix Netherlands Trial Site trials are underway to compare 5G collision avoidance with well-established Wi-Fi based V2V technology. The trials are being undertaken in collaboration with KPN together with VTT and TNO. Play the video embedded on this page to find out more.
Above: The 5G-MOBIX collision avoidance application was developed by VTT and run as an app on the network edge and in the vehicles Below: LMT has provided two EVs for testing in Riga. A Kia Soul EV and BMW i3, which are equipped with radars, cameras, sensors and drive-by-wire equipment need to provide fixed networks with each camera and traffic-sign,” says Lindenbergs. 5G is harder to deploy than 4G due to differences in band-frequencies and network range, but will create as-yet unknown traffic use-cases. “There should be close collaboration between MNOs and road authorities to proceed with deployment together,” says Lindenbergs.
Aksenoks is cautious on the timescale for AVs rolling out commercially on Latvian roads. “Change will come step-by-step,” he says. “There are many unanswered questions: for instance, how to check AV systems during technical inspections.” He believes autonomy will advance gradually via driver assistance systems and expects full autonomy to manifest first in demarcated applications like public transport and cargo truck platoons. “But autonomy is not just a target,” says Aksenoks. “These systems must help people in different situations.”
“Everybody dreams they will sit on the back seat, drink tea and maybe read a book,” says Lindenbergs. “But I agree with Aivars: it will happen step-by-step.” It is not only a question of autonomous cars, but of also deploying infrastructure which will increasingly take over the strain of autonomy from inbuilt vehicle systems. Lindenbergs notes that human error is implicated in over 90% of accidents and autonomous systems are in reality far safer than fallible, anthropoid drivers – but concedes that a shift in perception must come as the forerunner of public acceptance.
Winning hearts and minds
One way to familiarize a sceptical public with AVs could be first deployments in geofenced AVs could be first deployments in geofenced environments, before they are let loose in mixed environments, before they are let loose in mixed ecosystems to contend with human drivers. “But ecosystems to contend with human drivers. “But I don’t believe that’s how we should proceed,” I don’t believe that’s how we should proceed,” Lindenbergs argues. “We should consider how Lindenbergs argues. “We should consider how to connect older vehicles, perhaps with a to connect older vehicles, perhaps with a smartphone or some other device, to get smartphone or some other device, to get information from AVs and the infrastructure. information from AVs and the infrastructure. Data-exchange between all road users is crucial, Data-exchange between all road users is crucial, but just a beginning.” but just a beginning.”
“In Latvia, the average age of cars is 13 years,” adds Aksenoks. “Our car park is very, very old!” adds Aksenoks. “Our car park is very, very old!” He therefore sees an opportunity for Latvia to lead European mobility innovation, replacing its current fleet with new, intelligent vehicles more rapidly than is feasible elsewhere. “We believe in our country,” he says. “Even when we disagree, we are proud to work with LMT and support these innovations.”
“Historically, LMT has been a top-three operator for data-consumption,” says Lindenbergs. “Latvians are heavy smartphone users and our focus is always to provide the newest technologies.” This not only applies to 5G: LMT was among the first operators to offer 4G and to provide flat-rate broadband and mobile data. “Our vision was not a ticking clock in the heads of customers, but to see our flat-rate service as an entrance to future content,” he concludes. “We want to be as user-friendly as possible and expect to play a key role in future mobility services.” ■
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Who’s on your kerb?
The pandemic has put pressure on kerb space like never before, with more delivery drivers servicing the e-commerce boom, more active travel options requiring docking spaces, outdoor seating and pedestrianisation seeing a surge in popularity, and private car-use, with associated parking needs, on the rise. Enter a new era of smart kerb management – and with it the tools to provide a nudge toward vehicle electrification
Words | Paul Willis
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In August 2021 US president Joe Biden made headlines after issuing an executive order demanding that half of all new vehicles are zero emissions by 2030.
It was big news in a country where EV uptake still lags behind the two main markets of Europe and China (according to the most recent International Energy Agency figures, the US has 1.74 million plug-in electric cars on its roads compared to three million in Europe and 4.6 million in China.)
Alongside the executive order the Biden administration also announced US$60 millionworth of grants through the US Department of Energy (DoE) to fund projects aimed at decarbonizing the US transportation sector.
One of the grants was a US$4 million award for ongoing funding for a pilot project aimed at incentivizing EV use in three US cities - Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Pittsburgh.
The project, “the most comprehensive of its kind” yet to be tried in the US, according to Ariana Vito, the electric vehicle program coordinator for the City of Santa Monica, hopes to push EV uptake through kerbside management policies.
It will do this primarily through the creation of dedicated zero-emission loading zones for commercial vehicles. The selection of the three cities was deliberate, notes Erin Clark, the
autonomous vehicle policy analyst of Pittsburgh Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.
“These are all cities with historically poor air quality,” she says.
Computer vision
The three cities are working with a number of technology partners, including several US universities. However, integral to the success of the project will be the deployment of technology developed by the computer vision start-up Automotus.
Automotus’ tech works by deploying “cameras as a data source to tell cities how different types of vehicles are using the public right of way,” comments CEO and co-founder Jordan Justus.
The company’s software can verify how the kerb is being used as well as the types of vehicles parking there by leveraging machinelearning and AI to identify a vehicle’s make and
Above: The Santa Monica kerbside management programme will include local delivery firms The demand for kerb space has changed a lot in the last few years. It’s not just demand from commercial vehicles and for resident parking. We also have demand for bike lanes and – since the pandemic – demands for outdoor dining space
model. This means that it can know immediately if the parking vehicle is zero-emission or not.
While this may eventually be used for the purposes of enforcement, Justus believes that for the early stages of the pilot the camera technology will only be used to understand how the kerb is being used.
“Historically the kerbside has been used for on-street parking for passenger vehicles but that's not how it's being used anymore,” says Justus. “So we want to help cities first understand what's actually happening on the ground so that they can then use the tools at their disposal to change driver behavior.”
Pilot projects
The first pilot is already underway since early this year in Santa Monica, Los Angeles County’s famous beach-front city. Prior to it going live a suitable place to host the pilot needed to be found in the city’s downtown, notes Vito.
Vito explains: “We selected a one-mile pilot zone within our downtown area where we have the highest concentration of deliveries, and then scouted different available kerb spaces within that specific area.”
Through this process 11 zero-emission loading zones were selected and fitted out with Automotus’ camera technology. The city also spent several months of outreach to “surrounding retail businesses that could potentially benefit from the spaces,” says Vito.
They also contacted a number of delivery companies to see if they would take part. While the response was lukewarm from the big players in the field such as UPS and Amazon (“they were unwilling to commit to the data sharing requirements,” says Vito) a number of smaller-
Robots to the rescue?
More likely to catch the eye of visitors to Santa Monica than the monitored loading zones are the zeroemission delivery robots currently operating out of food outlets located in the downtown – which conveniently don’t need any kerb space at all, in order to make their deliveries.
Known as Coco bots, the units were produced by the robotics company Cyan Robotics, and are also part of the Santa Monica pilot. While the main focus of the pilot is the zero-emission loading zones, since its broader goal is to “create a roadmap to increase deliveries that are made more sustainably,” says Santa Monica’s electric vehicle program coordinator Ariana Vito, she and her team have been looking at other solutions, such as the deliver bots.
“We definitely have a lot of visitors to Santa Monica,” says Vito. “These visitors will see what we’re doing with the new kerb set-ups and it might spark interest and awareness of sustainable alternatives for deliveries and transportation in general.”
Vito is hoping to have Santa Monica’s latest zeroemission architecture fully in place and operational by 2024 when it will find itself on the global stage as Los Angeles plays host to the Olympics that year.
Above: Coco uses delivery robots with remote human overseers to shuttle food and other goods to customers in downtown Santa Monica
Above: A Coco delivery bot does its rounds on the streets of Santa Monica Left: In February 2021 Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) and the City of Santa Monica launched and deployed a first-in-the-nation Zero Emissions Delivery Zone
Ariana Vito, electric vehicle program coordinator, City of Santa Monica sized companies have come on-board.
They include the produce delivery company Perfectly Imperfect Produce, the linen delivery firm Alsco and the yerba mate herbal beverage company Guayaki.
Besides delivery companies, the city has also teamed up with a number of tech companies including Fluid Truck, a truck sharing platform that has agreed to make available its small fleet of zeroemission trucks to delivery companies operating in the Santa Monica downtown.
The Pittsburgh pilot, meanwhile, was set to launch in early November and will run for an initial 12 months, according to Clark. Like the Santa Monica pilot it will begin with an outreach phase to local businesses and delivery companies in the city.
This will be followed by “an education phase,” says Clark. “What that will look like will be installing signage on the poles near those zones to alert drivers and the public that smart loading zones are coming to this location. It won’t be until the later half of the pilot that we'll be attempting to do any enforcement.”
The same is true in Santa Monica where the city council will need to approve an ordinance allowing for the ticketing of non-EVs parking in zero-emission loading zones. “We aren't authorized within our municipal code to issue citations for this new type of zone,” says Vito.
What kerbside management policies ultimately wind up being adopted long-term by the cities involved the pilot is yet to be decided, according to Justus.
Enforce or charge?
One possibility being looked at is a move away from an enforcement parking model to a payment model, whereby EVs pay for access to the loading zones. While asking delivery companies to pay for parking that they have traditionally accessed for free may seem a difficult sell on the surface, Justus points out that delivery companies are already paying cities large amounts in fines for parking violations every year. In New York City, for example, UPS pay millions in parking tickets annually, says Justus. “What they typically do is come up with some sort of agreement with the city to pay a percentage of those tickets,” he says. “What we’re saying is, let's transition that account from citations as much as we can over to getting people to pay for their fair share of space, and then giving them enough space to where they don't have to double park.” Or as Clark puts it: “This is a way to create more predictability.”
Automotus’ camera technology can identify delivery trucks occupying the loading zones by reading their license plates, with the payment
Charging-free EV deliveries in Amsterdam
In 2021 the World Economic Forum published a white paper entitled, “Pandemic, Parcels and Public Vaccination – Envisioning the Next Normal for the LastMile Ecosystem”. Among other things, it carefully considers the challenges faced by delivery drivers as the global mission to decarbonize gathers pace.
One study it highlights looks at zero-emission zones in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, to analyze how, where and when vehicle-charging infrastructure needs to be put in place, to service electric delivery vehicles.
The surprising conclusion of the study was that no additional charging infrastructure was required for any of the city logistics investigated including waste collection, construction, retail and hospitality. This was because the best placed charging happened at a distribution center or depot at night using 150kW vehicle chargers.
Therefore, the study suggested that there is no need for governments to provide charging infrastructure in city centers for delivery vehicles. It was estimated a zero-emission zone in Amsterdam will cause a total energy demand 1-2% of total energy demand in the greater Amsterdam region.
The study was made using available statistics and a costoptimization model, considering the vehicular, battery and charging station characteristics and the journey profiles.
Estimates were also made of projected impact on the power grid, required number of charging points and spatial impacts.
Above: Automotus technology identifies kerb users in Santa Monica Above right: Kerbs are monitored using lamppost-mounted cameras
Sean Qian, professor of civil and environmental engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh automatically charged to the delivery companies account with the city. Non-EVs that use the zeroemission zones could be charged a premium.
The price is right?
Finding the right pricing model will be key to making such a system a success, says Sean Qian, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.
To do this Qian and his team are pulling the Automotus kerbside data currently being collected in Santa Monica and later in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, and feeding it into computer models. The simulations use insights from behavioral science to predict how driving habits change when pricing is introduced at the kerbside. “We can use the model to determine what is the optimal pricing to reduce congestion levels,” comments Qian.
The pilot project authors see reducing congestion as an important secondary effect of the zero-emission zones because of the correlation between congestion and emissions. A 2010 study by the University of California Transportation Center (UCTC), for example, found that CO2 emissions could be reduced by up to 20% through the use of congestion mitigation strategies.
The pilot project will focus on commercial vehicles rather than private vehicles because this is the area of most concern for city parking departments, says Justus.
“Right now cities have such an under-served problem with commercial vehicles and that is where their biggest focus is,” says Justus.
Covid pressures
One of the main reasons this problem has arisen is because of a rise in commercial vehicle volumes brought on by the growing trend for online retail, Justus notes. This trend has been exacerbated during the last year by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with city center restaurants in particular experiencing a sharp rise in food deliveries.
The result of this, according to Justus, is that “there are a lot more commercial vehicles fighting for kerb space.”
Alongside this spike in delivery operations there’s also been growing competition for kerbside access from other sources, says Clark.
“The demand for kerb space has changed a lot in the last few years,” says Clark. “It’s not just demand from commercial vehicles and for resident parking. We also have demand for bike lanes and – since the pandemic - demands for outdoor dining space.”
According to Justus, many US cities have failed to keep pace with these changes.
“The existing systems and real estate just don't align with the needs of commercial vehicles,” he says. “There's not enough real estate allocated for them. Meanwhile, the systems for payment, enforcement and data collection don't work.” n
Mirror to the world
Building digital twins of road infrastructure has the potential to greatly assist asset management operations as well as enable new construction projects to be more efficient than ever before and even enable more sophisticated traffic modelling, saving time and money and lowering emissions across entire road networks
Words | Lauren Dyson
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way that many industries operate – in some cases, forever. With a lot of physical and interactive work being moved online, the world needed digital infrastructure for remote working and monitoring. While this already existed to an extent, the ‘stay at home’ restrictions accelerated the development of truly viable solutions and opened our minds to change. For the transportation and infrastructure sectors, remote working meant finding new ways to manage physical assets and developing better ways to share information. It highlighted the power of accurate and reliable data, and demonstrated the benefits of information sharing across different sectors.
“The experience of the past year has shown what we can do when forced,” says Steve Cockerell, industry marketing director, transportation at Bentley Systems, “And this is an indicator to the level of opportunity that change provides if it is part of a strategy for delivering better business outcomes rather than a reaction to challenges encountered. We have to find safe, sustainable ways of overcoming the challenges we encounter in a very complex industry. In the short term this means increased digitisation, remote working, and a greater reliance on building information modelling (BIM) – advancing it to include 4D and 5D simulation to re-plan and reoptimise project schedules.”
Digital twins enable engineers to build infrastructure in a virtual world prior to, and alongside, realworld construction
Above: Virtual reality will be used by National Highways to inspect roads and plan future investments Right: It is hoped that the Digital Roads strategy will dramatically reduce the need for time consuming and costly on-site inspections
BIM standards and processes are well known to increase productivity and quality. Road authorities have been using 3D models to aid with the design process for a while now. Some organisations are also looking at how a similar approach to managed information, standardized processes and digital workflows could also benefit procurement and construction.
IoT and data-driven decisions
“Moving beyond BIM, fuelled by the increasing amount of data we collect, create, and consume in our day-to-day tasks, and the volume of connected devices delivering big data and the Internet of Things (IoT), we are already seeing more and more decisions being made based on insight gained directly from data,” says Cockerell. “That’s why I believe that infrastructure digital twins will be the next big disruption in our industry.”
Digital twins are an interactive, virtual representation of physical assets or systems. They increased in popularity during the depths of pandemic when teams were forced to learn new ways of working together remotely. Now as the industry works to recover from the effects of Covid-19, forward-thinking organizations are looking at how they can harness this technology to rebuild in a safer, more sustainable way.
The Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) predicts that over the next decade this combination of BIM technology, digital twins and IoT will enable us to plan infrastructure more effectively, build it at lower cost, and improve operations and maintenance for better performance over a longer lifespan. CDBB is a partnership between the Department of Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the University of Cambridge. Their combined aim is to understand how the construction and
infrastructure sectors can use a digital approach to better design, build, operate, and integrate the built environment. A key part of CDBB’s strategy is its National Digital Twin program (NDTp), which aims to ensure that high-quality, secure data is used effectively to improve how infrastructure is built, managed and operated. The NDTp is already working with future users and early adopters of digital twins to develop an information management framework that will ensure secure and resilient data sharing, and effective information management.
Virtual reality and road infrastructure
A digital twin can contain a lot of varied information – and may even represent a whole city – but it can also be streamlined to represent specific assets, such as road network infrastructure. A great example of an early adopter is the National Highways agency (formally Highways England), which is currently developing several virtual twins of the UK road network as part of its Digital Roads Strategy. The digital twins will see drawings and static models replaced with digital versions that can predict maintenance issues, such as potholes. The idea is
Cutting CO2 with digitalization
While the most visible benefits of the digital twin involve connecting different entities together, reducing the need for manual surveys and intelligent future planning, making all operations quicker and easier is beneficial for the environment too. “It is well known that construction and utility works have a high carbon footprint, but even things like surveys have an impact on the environment,” says Shaw.
“Carbon dioxide is now widely recognized as the primary driver for climate change and around 70% of the world’s emissions can be traced to infrastructure,” says Steve Cockerell, industry marketing director, transportation at Bentley Systems. Figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicate that transport is currently responsible for 24% of direct CO2 emissions from fuel combustion. Of all transport CO2 emissions, road vehicles, including cars, trucks, buses and two- and three-wheelers account for nearly 75%. The IEA warns that for the transport sector to continue to meet mobility and freight demand while reversing CO2 emissions growth, ‘energy efficiency measures will need to be deployed to maximum effect’.
“If we can simulate our network to improve traffic flow, that will reduce our carbon footprint because stopped traffic creates a lot of emissions,” says Shaw. “The digital twin will enable us to demonstrate that making specific changes to signage or signals – or other things - will improve traffic flow, without having to physically trial these changes. This has the potential to reduce substantially emissions on the UK road network.”
Above: A digital twin of the road network could help managers identify where pipes and cables are to plan work easier to join all of the digital twins together as the data builds up, to create one single source of data. “These digital twins have the potential to make construction quicker and easier,” comments Elliot Shaw, executive director, strategy and planning at National Highways. “They will also enable us to operate our infrastructure in a more resilient way.”
Surveying still involves sending people out to physically look at and assess the condition of assets to plan for improvement. If that can all be done digitally, it saves a lot of time and money. “There are a lot of potential benefits in terms of both construction and operation,” Shaw confirms. “One of the exciting things in the longer term will be the ability to operate with other entities in a much more joined-up way. One of the challenges we have when we’re enhancing our roads is understanding where other utilities, such as cables and pipes, are. A national digital twin would make it much easier for organizations to share information and understand how our different activities or initiatives impact each other. This will not only reduce costs and time spent on investigations, it will also improve safety because we will all have a much clearer sense of how the different pieces of our networks work together.”
The National Highways digital twin project is being developed in collaboration with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the EU MSCA COFUND programme, Costain and the University of Cambridge. The collaborative team is excited to see how the digital twins will transform the way they plan and upgrade the road network.
“Let’s say you wanted to upgrade your road signs to digital signs,” says Shaw. “The digital twin can provide you with the current location of all of the signs and gantries, as well as the position of power cables and pipes on the network. You can then determine where would be a good position for the upgrade. And you do all of this on a computer, instead of physically having to go out and look at the infrastructure.”
Information integration
For now, the focus is on asset management, but ultimately National Highways wants to use the
Digital twins have the potential to make construction quicker and easier. They will also enable us to operate our infrastructure in a more resilient way
Elliot Shaw, executive director of strategy and planning, National Highways
Above: Through its Digital Roads strategy, National Highways is striving to replace drawings and static 3D models with dynamic and data-rich digital models, that could combine asset management and traffic operations digital twin to combine asset management with traffic operations. “We will be able to use the digital twin to simulate traffic flow on the network,” Shaw explains. “This will enable us to work out how we can optimise flow using signs and signals and get as many people through the network as smoothly as we can. We also expect the data in our digital twin to build over time, so eventually it could include things like movement of data and maps. Ultimately, we want the digital twin to include data about ongoing operations.” Captured data can also be used to inform National Highways’ operational grid.
Sharing data
When there is so much information to manage, data needs to be held securely and used effectively. For National Highways, data integration is being achieved in several ways. One example is the Business Information Framework (BIF), which forms part of National Highways’ Smart Motorways program. “This is a useful platform that enables the data in our programme to be standardized, integrated and shared between all of the players involved,” says Shaw. “Historically, a lot of that information would not have been captured digitally. It would have been on PDFs and on proprietary systems. We’re trying to get everyone collaborating, using one single data source.”
Real-world projects
As a starting point, digital maps are currently being drawn up of the M25 (London’s orbital motorway). This is one of the UK’s most important roads and is accordingly one of the busiest. Ongoing severe congestion has led to the introduction of numerous traffic management initiatives over the years, most recently National Highways’ smart motorway scheme. The digital maps will be a useful tool for managing infrastructure on this notoriously busy road, providing critical information on operations that can be shared in real time.
A digital twin pilot is also being used to help with the planning and implementation of National Highways’ A428 Black Cat project, which will improve journeys between Milton Keynes and Cambridge. These two projects will form the foundation of National Highways’ digital twin infrastructure.
“We’re really trying to push forward the dream of an ultimate single digital twin that covers the entire network for both development and operations, but that’s going to take some time,” says Shaw. “So, we’re taking on the
Above: The Digital Roads strategy represents a step-change in UK transport infrastructure and is at the heart of National Highways’ long-term vision for the Strategic Road Network Below: Data and technology will be harnessed to enable predictive asset management network in bite-sized chunks, advancing our digital assets in a variety of ways that will realize that vision over time.”
Long-term success
The Project of the Future report, which summarizes the best ideas presented at the 2021 GII (Global Infrastructure Initiative) Summit, says that while most infrastructure owners and contractors recognize the potential of digital transformation, there are challenges that need to be overcome to make these work long term and at scale. The report notes that too often organizations fail to progress further than individual pilot projects. Why is this?
One reason is data: getting it, securing it and being able to trust it. “The biggest challenge that everyone has at the moment is making sure that the data is there, and the data is good quality,” Shaw comments. “You also need to make sure that you have rules around your data, which make sure that it is operable – both within your organization, and as part of a national digital twin.”
Participants at the 2021 GII summit, held in Montreal in April 2021, also raised concerns about cost, as well as worries about an overall lack of knowledge and experience. Indeed, change can be a challenge. The Project of the Future report resolves that “to move beyond pilot projects and experimentation, organizations must undertake comprehensive transformation efforts at both the enterprise and project levels,” stressing that “increased collaboration can help align stakeholders, inspire innovation, and establish outcome-focused measures of progress.”
Digital twins are powerful tools that provide road infrastructure owners with a better understanding of their systems and enable them to anticipate problems before they occur. They have the potential to revolutionize the way we manage our infrastructure, providing benefits to society, the economy, business, and the environment. But only if we have vision, reliable data, and a willingness to collaborate.
“We recognize that data is a massive asset for us, so we need to make sure that we are managing our data and exploiting its value in the biggest way possible,” says Shaw. “By starting with a handful of initiatives, we are making sure that we can access that high-quality data. We can then start building on that and over time we can create a longer-term digital twin.” n
Networks of desire
Demandresponsive public transport options are making first and last-mile connections vastly more efficient than traditional local bus services
In Europe, demand-responsive transport (DRT) has leapt from niche to mainstream. Ondemand buses are rolling out in cities and rural districts alike, driven by a desire for innovative post-Covid-19 public transport and government agendas focused on social equity. Across the developing world, informal and flexible transport is an established part of urban life and has proven resilient in adapting to change. But data platforms must make sense of vast, seemingly chaotic systems to enable optimised real-time choices.
DRT now part of the mix
Global DRT player Via has seen rapid expansion of UK on-demand bus services. “We’re just in a different world,” says Via UK partnerships manager, Jonathan Hampson. “In two years, we’ve gone from one or two DRT schemes to 17 and now have dedicated funding-streams.” The UK Rural Mobility Fund supports provincial deployments, while a £3bn (US$3.9bn) National Bus Strategy requires local authorities to submit bus service improvement plans (BSIPs) to determine funding. “All of those now include DRT,” says Hampson. “There’s general recognition that must be part of the mix.”
Britain’s poorly connected villages provide the most obvious use-cases for DRT services like Tees Flex, established by Via and Stagecoach in northeast England. “Previously, fixed-route buses went round villages maybe twice a day,” says Hampson. “But how can you plan your life around that?” Now villagers can summon Tees Flex via an app with average 20-minute wait-times. “For rural communities, that’s transformative.” Hampson casts DRT in terms
As on-demand public transport hits the mainstream in Europe and the USA, developing cities, from Mexico City to Gauteng in South Africa, are grappling to make long-established informal modes efficient and comprehensible – with real-time data the key to it all
Words | Jack Roper
Above and right: The Rumbo app is helping to make Mexico City’s combination of formal and informal transport options easier to use of the Conservative government’s professed levelling up agenda. “Suddenly, everyone can access jobs and services,” he says. “People not on fixed bus-routes are no longer car-dependent.”
New world of demand
Mexico City is the world’s fifth-largest city and one of the most congested. Its dizzyingly complex transport network typifies cities across the majority of the world, where 80% of urban dwellers depend on informal public transport. “People who have lived in these cities their whole lives struggle to find the most efficient routes, never mind first-time visitors,” says WhereIsMyTransport co-founder and CEO, Devin de Vries. “Solving that challenge requires data on every mode and operational style, with added layers such as service alerts and the all-important communitycontributed content.”
Public transport ranges from government-run Metro and bus systems to flexible and semiflexible modes known as colectivos. “Private operators run many thousands of microbuses, camiones and combis under government concession,” explains de Vries. “The colectivo network is 10 times larger than the formal system and critical to Mexico City’s functionality.” Like DRT services, colectivos run on flexible routes and timetables, but unlike them they have been unpredictable, especially when external events impact the network. Colectivos are a hard mode to pin down. But back in November 2020, WhereIsMyTransport launched its Rumbo Android app in Mexico City. Rumbo provides real-time data and alerts for both formal and informal modes across 2,400 routes. “Local data-collectors on the
2,400
The number of routes for which WhereIsMyTransport’s Rumbo Android app in Mexico City provides real-time data and alerts for, across both formal and informal modes
Making it real-time in Chicago
An award-winning rider-detection system enabled Chicago Transit Authority to adapt to ensure safe and socially distanced bus travel.
Digi International’s transit-occupancy pilot project with Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) and City Tech Collaborative was conceived in response to the need for safer transit during the pandemic. By providing real-time insights into the occupancy of buses on its 79th Street routes, it has helped CTA proactively meet ridership demand, reduce passenger crowding and wait-times and provide a socially-distanced travel experience.
The system tracked unique riders via wi-fi detection enabled by routers on vehicles. This information was provided to the Digi Remote Manager command center, which configured, deployed and managed remote devices and assets securely at the edge.
IoT World recognized the innovative system, which enables demand-responsive bus deployment, with its IoT Deployment of the Year Award for 2021.
“We are proud to be named a winner in this year’s IoT World Awards, particularly for a collaborative project that aimed to solve unique challenges brought on by the pandemic,” says Digi business development director for government, Steve Mazur. “Covid-19 paused many smart city and transportation projects but prompted an impactful one in Chicago, where citizens rely heavily on public transit.
“Through this pilot, Digi demonstrated the value of IoT technology in solving current challenges within the core functions of society and built a solid foundation for future operations prioritizing the greater good.”
Steve Mazur, business development director for government, Digi International
ground use our bespoke app to track routes, frequencies and fares,” says de Vries. “We map entrances, exits, stairs, gates and platforms at stations and interchanges. After initial data collection, we keep a team in each city to maintain data accuracy.” Rumbo is further informed by social listening and allows users to submit their own disruption reports.
Rumbo enables travellers to navigate a tumultuous network continually reshaped by fluid vicissitudes of demand. Already, it has 100,000 users in Mexico City and has issued 750,000 real-time disruption alerts. “In recent months, Rumbo was a go-to resource as commuters navigated disruptions caused by the overpass collapse and Metro fires,” says de Vries. “Visitors can experience full cultural immersion and wander without getting lost.”
Car-free uplands
The UK decarbonisation agenda informs new DRT services that reduce car-dependency. “For a year, we told people not to use public
Above and below: Via builds white label apps that allow local authorities to add on-demand services to their networks under their own branding transport,” says Hampson. “Now, we need to get people away from private cars and back on shared transport. Frankly, public transport didn’t function well before, so simply rebuilding it won’t work.”
Britain needs new solutions – and Via’s research supports the case for on-demand buses. “In Wales, we have a nationwide scheme called Fflecsi,” says Hampson. “Recently, 73% of car-owning survey-respondents said they drive less now Fflecsi is in place.”
“In the world’s most polluted cities, Covid-19 translated into the first clear skies seen in decades,” says de Vries. “Now, sustaining the new normal calls for blue-sky thinking.” But he questions proposals to invest in Mexico City’s Metro, bus and railway systems and reduce reliance on dirty and overcrowded minivans. “Informal transport is often maligned in this way,” he says. “It’s easy to see cramped, older vehicles and miss the advantages of informal networks.” Per person, he estimates that colectivos emit at least four times less than single-occupancy cars.
In two years, we’ve gone from one or two DRT schemes to 17 and now have dedicated funding-stream
Jonathan Hampson, partnerships manager, Via UK Collective good
Mexico City has 1,400 informal public transport services, compared to just 199 formal ones. “Informal vehicles serve peripheral areas the Metro doesn’t reach,” continues de Vries. “Without them, the city would grind to a standstill.” Instead of costly network expansion, he advocates affordable improvements to demand-driven travel. “Informal transport receives zero subsidy. Channelling even a fraction of transport spending would create safety and travel-time benefits.” This could include safety cameras, better vehicle standards and upgrade subsidies, while dedicated public transport lanes cost little and benefit low-income passengers.
Formerly ViaVan, Via has a global presence with partnerships across 26 countries. But no UK services are Via-branded. “We white-label our technology to power other people’s mobility services,” Hampson explains. “Our partners are bus operators and local authorities.” Tees Flex is a partnership with Stagecoach and Tees Valley Combined Authority. “We provide the technology layer and sometimes the operations:
Above: A Via service operating in New York City. The company has a presence in 26 countries whichever makes most sense.” The technology consists of three disarmingly simple pillars.
The first component is customer-facing. “We have some really nice-looking, white-label apps,” says Hampson. “Our services can also
be booked by phone.” The second, back-office pillar is the Via Operations Center. “The beauty of DRT is the reporting. It shows exactly who’s travelling, where they booked and their destination. The insight is substantial.” The third pillar, a driver app, provides a dynamic agenda and makes the vehicle visible to passengers. “That’s it,” says Hampson. “Other than the driver’s mobile device, no additional hardware is needed.” A suite of APIs enables Via to connect with mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) models which combine on-demand and fixed-route travel within one experience. “We can either integrate other services into our app, or integrate our services into third-party MaaS apps,” Hampson explains. In Berlin, the BerlKönigbranded Via service is already integrated into the Jelbi MaaS app, while Via has partnered with Ticketer to evolve its third-party planning and ticketing. African routes DRT is inherently adaptable. In South Africa’s Gauteng City Region, 69% of households rely on tens of thousands of privately-run minibus taxis for their daily mobility. “Public transport consists Frankfurt’s on-demand network mostly of buses, subject to frequent breakdowns and delays,” says de Vries. “The minibus taxis G ermany’s Rhein-MainVerkehrsverbund (RMV) transport association has launched an onreceive no subsidy and short journeys within Johannesburg cost only a few rand. But together, they represent a business essential to the economy and worth US$6.4bn a year.” demand transportation app expected The minibus-taxi network is dynamic and to benefit up to 1.8 million people. It shifts to meet demand: routes crop up or extend coincides with the introduction of EMIL, to serve new housing developments or shopping a new shuttle service in Taunusstein malls. During the pandemic, fluidity provided near Frankfurt which is bookable via resilience. “In 2020, 30% of routes changed the RMV app. as operators reacted to falling ridership
Deutsche Bahn subsidiary ioki by extending or merging them,” says de is responsible for the intelligence Vries. “Fares initially rose before settling underpinning the platform. The project at 10% to 40% above pre-Covid levels.” will see 10 local partners in the Frankfurt Rhine-Main metropolitan area roll out Now, he believes comprehensive dataon-demand services, creating the largest such network in Germany. mapping is needed to provide confidence
“New, data-based transport will play a decisive role in the mobility turnaround of in new ventures and investment – in South Germany and in Europe,” says ioki managing director, Dr Michael Barillère-Scholz. Africa and beyond. “In emerging-world cities, “Our goal is to support public transport companies and municipalities with our digital 85% of public transport operates informally knowledge and platform as best as we can. This project’s significance extends far and two billion people rely on it,” he says. beyond the borders of the Rhine-Main region. It exemplifies an integrated, planned The rapid growth of UK on-demand bus and efficient approach to new mobility.” services is driven in part by parallel innovations
The EMIL shuttle is intended to promote both digital and climate-friendly mobility in private mobility and customer expectations for the citizens of Taunusstein. By 2022, the fleet will include up to five electrically-powered created by Uber-type services. “If bus companies shuttles. Some will be barrier-free, to enable flexible mobility for all users. They will operate and cities aren’t keeping up with those services, for longer than existing services, particularly at evenings and weekends. public mobility will suffer,” says Hampson. In the end, this is why DRT matters. “It’s just so New, data-based transport will play a decisive role in the mobility turnaround of Germany and in Europe important that public shared mobility wins over private mobility. We now have a government prepared to reinvest into public transport. The Dr Michael Barillère-Scholz, managing director, ioki key thing is: does the money actually flow and translate into better services?” ■
69% The proportion of citizens who rely on privately-run minibus taxis for their daily mobility, in South Africa’s Gauteng City
