SMART MOBILITY |
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
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energy from renewable sources uilding sustainable urban can form a virtuous circle whereby mobility (SUM) is among vehicle batteries become the foremost challenges a valuable asset for massive confronting Europe in and decentralized renewable the next half-century. It will energy deployment. But be instrumental in efforts to simply electrifying reduce climate change and mobility is not enough: to transition to a low-carbon successfully tackle the economy. Transportation climate emergency, it must play a pivotal role in The percentage reduction must be combined with achieving COP21 Paris in cars that could still other measures. Agreement climate targets support EU travel According to the and United Nations International Union of Public Sustainable Development demands Transport (IUTP), several Goals. Indeed, SUM must studies show that 80% fewer cars become a cornerstone of the would be sufficient to support the European Union’s future economic current travel of EU citizens. growth and the quality of life of Removing four in every five its citizens. cars would deliver profound environmental benefits to European A SUM of infinite parts cities, improve traffic efficiency, Electric vehicles (EVs) present a Above: To combat reduce the need for parking and free perfect replacement for internal climate change, up urban space. But it requires an combustion vehicles, offering similar the electrification integrated approach encompassing services and benefits with fewer of mobility must not only proper public transport and environmental drawbacks. be combined with electromobility infrastructure, but Integrating electromobility with other measures
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Intertraffic World | Annual Showcase 2022
technological solutions to balance and coordinate the combined operation of different modes. It requires tools like Etra’s suite 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 public transport and EVs to public bikes. It uses configurable criteria to analyze and graphically visualize this data through intuitive 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
