Platforms for revolution

Europe faces sustainability challenges that electromobility alone cannot resolve. It must optimize multimodal mobility across cities – but this demands open, robust and interoperable platforms to combine and manage vertical systems in real time

Words | Antonio J Ortín, general manager of ETRA I+D, Grupo Etra, Spain

Building sustainable urban mobility (SUM) is among the foremost challenges confronting Europe in the next half-century. It will be instrumental in efforts to reduce climate change and transition to a low-carbon economy. Transportation must play a pivotal role in achieving COP21 Paris Agreement climate targets and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Indeed, SUM must become a cornerstone of the European Union’s future economic growth and the quality of life of its citizens.

A SUM of infinite parts

Electric vehicles (EVs) present a perfect replacement for internal combustion vehicles, offering similar services and benefits with fewer Above: To combat climate change, the electrification of mobility must environmental drawbacks. be combined with Integrating electromobility with other measures energy from renewable sources can form a virtuous circle whereby vehicle batteries become a valuable asset for massive and decentralized renewable energy deployment. But simply electrifying mobility is not enough: to successfully tackle the climate emergency, it must be combined with other measures. According to the International Union of Public Transport (IUTP), several studies show that 80% fewer cars would be sufficient to support the current travel of EU citizens. Removing four in every five cars would deliver profound environmental benefits to European cities, improve traffic efficiency, reduce the need for parking and free up urban space. But it requires an integrated approach encompassing not only proper public transport and electromobility infrastructure, but

technological solutions to balance and coordinate the combined operation of different modes. It requires tools like Etra’s suite 80% of smart mobility solutions. Mistral is based on open-source tools that gather and monitor realtime data across every city mobility system, from traffic management to The percentage reduction public transport and EVs to public in cars that could still support EU travel bikes. It uses configurable criteria to analyze and graphically visualize this data through intuitive demands dashboards to inform decisionmaking. It enables global, integrated management actions to be implemented and the results monitored across all vertical mobility systems. It supports publication of city mobility information via an open data approach which facilitates its use by external third-parties.

One platform, many modes

The usefulness of such a smart mobility platform depends on several key characteristics. It must be

horizontal, to enable integration of different vertical mobility systems. It must be interoperable, to allow interaction and integration with external systems, and scalable, to increase its capacity without changing its architecture. It must be robust, capable of uninterrupted performance if problems arise, cybersecure and compliant with data privacy regulations.

Such a platform must be based on standard and open protocols. It must combine modularity, enabling progressive deployment as new functionalities are required, with a capacity to evolve in response to future needs. It must be capable of both operating and providing the information it gathers to third-parties in real time. It must be accessible via a web-based interface that enables multiple actors to interact with it simultaneously in a userfriendly way.

Finally, its focus must be moving people, not just vehicles, in support of coherent city strategies for use of urban space. It must therefore integrate multiple vertical systems used to manage mobility. It must integrate traffic management, public transport (including bus priority at intersections), parking systems and accessibility for citizens with reduced mobility. It must do all this in accordance with the principles of open data, interoperability and full transparency.

Strategic eye to the wind

A powerful big data and business intelligence tool is essential to complement real-time operations and facilitate strategic mobility planning. Garbi from Etra is a leading solution in this domain. It enables mobility managers and urban planners to evolve from static, reportbased analysis to dynamic, online analytical processing (OLAP) visual tools, interact with the data and instantly grasp the details and complexities of urban mobility. Today, Europe faces challenges. The solution demands qualitative technological change. Openness, integration, reactiveness, electrification and interoperability will become mandatory for real-time mobility management. This will need to be complemented by powerful big data and business intelligence tools for strategic planning. Only then will more human, sustainable and efficient cities become a reality. ■

Above: Etra’s smart mobility platform, Mistral

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