Moving people and the economy

MOVING PEOPLE

and the economy

Whether it’s for leisure, business or employment, in order to function, every level of society needs to interconnect to make the wheels of the economy turn. Alastair Currie speaks to Bongani MthombeniMöller, director of Royal HaskoningDHV’s Smart Mobility Advisory Group for Southern Africa, about theoretical and practical interventions.

Bongani Mthombeni-Möller, director of Royal HaskoningDHV’s Smart Mobility Advisory Group for Southern Africa

How would you define smart mobility?

BM Spatial planning and transportation are integral parts of urban developments that sustain economies and communities. For me, smart mobility refines this by adopting an intelligent approach that results in cleaner, safer, more efficient and convenient modes of transport that also reduce climate impacts. Examples include real-time traffic management systems that optimise vehicle movements to minimise congestion during peak periods.

Smart mobility systems embrace cloudbased technologies to communicate and synch with each other, with a host of new apps being developed for users to access and leverage this to their advantage. Today, for example, consumers can order transportation instantly on their smartphones.

Then there’s the new wave of artificially intelligent vehicles that instantly respond and correct to ensure that everyone stays safely within their lane, while anticipating and responding automatically to potential threats to more vulnerable road users, like cyclists, motorcyclists and pedestrians.

Safety speaks to the heart of smart mobility. From an infrastructure perspective, that includes implementing a prevention and prediction mechanism, using technologies like digital twinning to overlay live data on virtual models to verify the current status of a road and simulate planned interventions. These could include pothole repairs, stormwater improvements and carriageway upgrades.

In this respect, Royal HaskoningDHV is one of the most progressive in embracing new mobility models, both within its home base in the Netherlands, as well as all the other countries it operates in. Each country has its own unique experiences, which include evolving transportation patterns.

In South Africa’s case, for example, there’s been a major shift from traditional freight and passenger rail to an increasing reliance on road base transport. However, the shift is more reactive than strategic because, in this case, a steady deterioration in rail services has forced the issue, with knock-on effects in terms of rising infrastructure maintenance and higher transportation costs.

South Africa’s public transport model needs an urgent revamp. What are the practical first steps?

Going forward, we first need to ask ourselves what South Africa’s future mobility model should look like in our lifetime. In other words, what can we realistically change now? Presently, we see modes of transport competing rather than complementing each other, an example being the informal taxi industry versus conventional city and suburban bus services.

Moving forward, government’s evolving institutional framework will be a major contributor to positive smart mobility developments. Gautrain is an excellent example of a mobility solution that works very well in practice with its high-speed rail and bus connection model. However, due

to its network and pricing, Gautrain tends to serve a niche market.

The reality is that millions of South Africans rely on the taxi industry to get to work and meet their other mobility needs. The introduction of Brazil’s highly successful BRT (or bus rapid transit) concept in South Africa appears to have achieved mixed results. One of the reasons could be the routes selected. Although they are meant to tie in with current and future urban master planning, they don’t appear to have sufficiently taken existing commuter behaviour into account. Taxis still are more direct and immediate for many.

So, that’s why mobility needs to be smarter, using technologies like those housed within the geographic information system (GIS) space to monitor geospatial trends that have a bearing on the evolution of transportation nodes and their ensuing infrastructure funding mechanisms. To achieve this in practice will require total community engagement.

What about driver behaviour and road user education?

This is fundamental to ensuring the success of smart mobility. Road user education must start at the earliest practical age within the school system to prepare and safeguard learners for future mobility scenarios, whether they’re drivers or pedestrians. It’s about instilling safe and responsible behaviour from the onset.

Are electric powered vehicles part of South Africa’s future transportation landscape?

As in the rest of the world, electric powered vehicles are slowly but surely going to dominate the transportation landscape. In developed nations, like the UK, their mandate is to phase out the sale of new petrol- and diesel-powered cars by 2030. In developing countries like South Africa, high-net-worth early adopters can afford a shift to electric powered vehicles. Electric powered trucks produced by international OEMs are also now making inroads in the South African commercial and industrial sectors.

However, in the medium term, these vehicles remain too costly for the bulk of South African users, plus there are the intermittent supply implications of Eskom load-shedding. At this stage, nationwide renewable energy availability is insufficient to fill the gap. So, electric vehicles will see a slow and phased approach here.

In the interim, there are readily available alternative fuel options, like biodiesel and diesel-electric hybrids that in some cases are already powering South African bus fleets.

There are also great opportunities for the evolution of green hydrogen over the longer term, with the plan to harvest this fuel via renewable energy plant generation. That presents a fantastic collaboration opportunity between our future renewable energy and transportation imperatives.

Are current road funding models sustainable in the longer term?

Funding is a challenge when it comes to infrastructure in general. Taxation is one source. However, to truly enable smart mobility, there must be some type of userpays principle, and private sector investment. This is a topic we brainstorm constantly at Royal HaskoningDHV.

Which smart mobility projects is Royal HaskoningDHV currently working on?

Current examples include the awarding of the Intelligent Transport Strategy 2027 project for the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA). This follows Royal HaskoningDHV’s drafting of an Intelligent Transport Strategy for signal management and traffic monitoring for the JRA.

Royal HaskoningDHV’s award-winning traffic optimisation software, Flowtack, will form a component of the unfolding smart mobility solutions. Key assessment tools include Traffic Management as a Service (TMaaS) and Mobility as a Service (MaaS).

With MaaS, commuters can use their smartphones to access transport services. In turn, TMaaS is a tool that interconnects all transport platforms so that they work together to deliver on time.

Royal HaskoningDHV is also a core participant in the Mobility Centre for Africa NPC. Mobility Centre for Africa looks at future mobility solutions and advances collaborative initiatives between industry, government and academia.

What role will drone technology play in the future transport mix?

In the not-too-distant future, airborne drone taxis could well become a regular feature in some parts of the world. On a more practical level, though, drones are already an invaluable tool within the contexts of digital twinning and GIS mapping. Today, we use drones for infrastructure asset management assessment, traffic monitoring, as well construction project management, among other applications.

And in closing?

Collaboration and joint decision-making are key to coordinating smart mobility roll-outs. At present, the lack of centralised transportation planning and execution is the missing link in South Africa, so that needs to change.

And on a personal note, I feel privileged to be part of a talented team bringing smarter future mobility solutions to Southern Africa. Working with all our stakeholders, Royal HaskoningDHV is committed to its motto of ‘Enhancing Society Together.’