Smart City Transport Implementation [Part 2]

Toyota City is an industrial city with a manufacturing base, yet is also a vast city bursting with nature—forests and woods in particular. In response to the societal changes of recent years, Toyota City, which has been selected by the government of japan as an "Eco-model city", is aiming to create a world-class "Smart Transport Society" by establishing sustainable traffic systems that form an environmentally-friendly model for the world. In this project, Hitachi, with the cooperation of Toyota City, TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION, Meitetsu Bus Co., Ltd, and other stakeholders, is promoting various measures for the reduction of CO2 emissions in areas such as energy, mobility, and human activity, with the aim of the creation of low-carbon society systems.

Figure 1

Creation of low-carbon transport systems has traditionally involved efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and make efficient use of infrastructural resources. These efforts include the creation of systems that build bridges between transport services that were operating individually, and the arrangement of transport flows that do not impact convenience for users.

Figure 2

We have developed and demonstrated Bus Operation Planning Simulator (BOPS) in Toyota City Low-Carbon Society Verification Project.

• BOPS supports bus operators to flexibly change their bus operation plans.
• BOPS contributes to promoting the utilization of buses and improving the usability of passengers.
• BOPS contributes to promoting the utilization of buses and improving the usability of passengers.
• BOPS estimates several indicators such as economic performance of bus operation under various conditions of roads and bus schedule.

Figure 3

A low carbon emission bus (LCEB) is a bus that is able to achieve the LCEB target for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. A low carbon emission bus can use any technology or fuel for the convenience.

1. Connected regional bus lines, one of the requirement for a good regional transport is the connection between each other, such as regional and intercity bus lines.
2. Running on waste and renewable fuel, foreseeable future would be guarantee by using the three main global biofuels such as biogas, bioethanol, and biodiesel.
3. The connected bus, bus units connected with office system, enabling traffic planner to improve productivity by monitoring driver and unit performance.
4. Green filling stations, cities need an affective infrastructure for the provision of sustainable biofuels, such as biogas, bioethanol, and biodiesel.
5. Terminal, it is an important hub for public transport operators, consisting of vehicle maintenance workshops, driver training features, the unit’s management system office, and biofuel filling station.
6. Recycling, non-recyclable waste can be turned into energy in a combined heat-and-power plant. Any organic waste can be used to produce biogas to supply filling stations.

Figure 4

Smart City Transport Implementation [Part 1]

Many people nowadays prioritize their own comfort by travelling around the cities by car. This has caused the road to be congested and also will cause the impact for the environment. We may think this may not be one of our problems, yet this is the leading cause of the problem in our society. As we are trying to find the solution to this problem, there comes an idea of smart cities whereby the government encourage the people to start using the public transportation provided. In order to use the public transportation, they would need to think of how to optimize the usage of the public transportation. The answer is by providing the smart application for the public transportation. The smart application will give more benefits to the public transportation users and also reducing the road congestion problem which mentioned early.

These are the type of data that should be included in the public transportation application: 

• Transport route details : this data should include the transport service numbers and destination road details.   
• Infrastructure geolocation : the locations of bus stops and train terminals.
• Real-time data :  estimates arrival time of the transport and maintenance time.
• Ticketing procedures : ticket booking and estimated prices.

Figure 1

There are five layers of transportation function:

The first layer is the user experience layer whereby the user will receive information or other services from the transportation company from where the transportation actually occur. Second layer is the transportation services layer whereby the companies provide services to the users. The third layer would be the information collection layer whereby the information is gathered by the companies that provided the services to the users. The fourth layer is the information management and control layer whereby the information that is gathered by the companies are managed and controlled in order to provide a good and comfortable services to the users. The last layer would be the transportation company coordination layer whereby the entire information that gathered by all the transportation companies used to optimize the transportation inside the smart city and for guidance to the companies.

If you would like to know more in details, please check out Hitachi.

Smart City Transportation

            Parking is one of insignificant thing that may appear in building a smart city. Smart parking is a one new projects that help to build a smarter city. The aim of smart parking is actually to be able to let the user find the nearest parking spot easier than the manual way. The smart parking will be very efficient to help the user to spend lesser time on finding a parking spot. It will lead to the reduced air pollution and CO2 emissions as people will straight away find the parking spot seamlessly. They will find it more efficient as they will not spend more time on searching for parking lots, they could be in time anytime they have something to do ass the traffic will not be as heavy as usual. Smart parking project could be done with the implementation of a smart phone application that enabled all available parking lots to be discovered by the application.

The example of a smart parking application that is currently popular is MobyPark. This application works with partnership of private parking lots, hotels, hospitals, etc to enlarge the parking spot database. The user will also be able to book the parking spots before they actually arrived. Even the pricing details will also be available to access on the go. This is a good start for smart parking project to build a smart city.

Are you curious about this application and how it works? Check the videos below.

Bonjour! Still unclear about MobyPark application? Please visit Moby Park.

There is one more example or concept, which is made by Cisco. Cisco is actually a well-known company that had been in the internet industries for a long time. This time they had decided to develop a smart parking system, not only a router. Cisco realized that smart parking should be integrated into a smart city as a basic as people find it hard to find a parking spot nowadays. Cisco answered it with Cisco Smart + Connected City Parking. 

Figure 1

            Cisco Smart + Connected City Parking addresses the issue by combining IP Cameras, smart phone's application, and Cisco Smart + Connected Wi-Fi infrastructure in a smart city to provide the citizens with parking spots availability in real time. What are the features available?

• Provide real time parking availability through smartphone's application.

• Parking lot search by personal reference.

• Parking rates and policy view.

• Provide maps to the parking spots.

• Mobile payment for the metered / non metered parking spots

Here is the link to the more detailed explanation of the  Cisco Smart + Connected City Parking.

Smart City Introduction

“Smart cities should be regarded as systems of people interacting with and using flows of energy, materials, services and financing to catalyst sustainable economic development, resilience, and high quality of life; these flows and interactions become smart through making strategic use of information and communication infrastructure and services in a process of transparent urban planning and management that is responsive to the social and economic needs of society.”

(European Commission, 2013)

Smart city is often being related into the development of Information Technologies in a big scale. A smart city itself is different from a digital city as smart city is complex. Smart city is a city that could successfully implemented appropriate new technologies to use to deliver a smarter city. It links every aspect of life such as economic, politic, information and technology, and social to develop a better infrastructures and services.



Figure 1

 

According to the European Smart Cities (2011), there are six characters that define a smart city, such as Smart People, Smart Economy, Smart Governance, Smart Mobility, Smart Environment, and Smart Living. These are the most important aspect to build a smart city completely. Smart city concept should include many elements as it captures mostly all aspect that relates to a city itself. The main objective of a smart city is actually to increase the quality of life of the citizens which also include all aspects of the citizens’ rights.

The picture below shows clearly a good plan of a connected smart city.

Figure 2

There are three measurements for the smart city implementation, such as Buildings, Energy Networks, and Transportation. Buildings will be made with the lowest possible energy consumption levels, which will includes a good insulation material with the buildings. The transportation should be smarter too by using the low carbon transportation and smart applications for transportation system.

Figure 3

Do you know which city is considered the smartest city in the world? If not, check this video out about 10 smartest cities in the world.