The Future of Transportation

The Future of Transportation

Transportation is a mean of connecting people. We use different transportation means and transit systems to reach our destinations and to move essential goods. It is well known that safety and innovation in transportation are entwined with economic opportunity for all people.

During the upcoming 30 years, it is expected to see a huge growth in human population on earth, which will have a huge demand for transportation systems in order to fulfill the need to relocate to other areas, so a tsunami of change is expected in the transit systems.

On this regards the freight dynamics are changing as well. The bridges and roads will need to be improved in order to handle larger containers. The climate change is, as well, responsible for developing the infrastructure and resilience is now a key phrase in transportation planning, supported by the rapidly developed transportation technologies.

The Future of Transportation brought together leading thinkers in transportation, urban planning, technology, and government officials to addressed, in this regards, three main themes:

• Safety A transportation system cannot be effective if it is not safe for users and operators.
• Opportunity that provides reliable links to different destinations and services to facilitate the development of the people.
• Innovation Some of the biggest leaps in automation and connectivity are happening in transportation.

Safety. Opportunity. Innovation. These are the themes sparking the future of transportation.

Safety

Lately, fatal crashes has been increasing, however, fortunately, most of them are preventable. Lives lost on roads are about 95% of transportation fatalities, 94% are caused by human error. Why is it a crisis now? because by 2015 it increased by 7.2%.

When you look at that as a percentage jump, that is the highest percentage increase in over 50 years, pretty much since we’ve been measuring this. And what are the real bad news? When we look at the upcoming six-month it is estimated to have a 10.4% increase. It’s going in the wrong direction. This represents an immediate crisis.

Based on given information, it is important for transportation professionals to improve the work for creating highly automated vehicles, because vehicle automation, may save many lives that are caused lost due to the human errors and faults.

Opportunity

Many Cities are built on transportation. The sites for America’s older, colder cities, like New York and Boston, were attractive because they were built on natural harbors.

As the country expanded west, canals and rail networks allowed cities like Chicago to blossom. And when the nation turned toward vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, cities like Houston grew.

Today as much as ever, transportation is shaping America’s cities. We’re certainly in an era in which technology is rapidly changing and has the capacity to change cities rapidly as well.

The urban system came about to solve a transportation problem How to move goods and people across a vast country. In 1900, the 20 largest cities in America were located on major waterways.

Applying that on modern cities, we can find that 80% of the countries population are found in cities which have underground transportation systems, which can be a great opportunity to focus on to transport goods beside people transportation.

City-centric efforts are part of our calls a new urban practice, which leverages public, private, philanthropic, and non-profit capital to solve local problems. There are four ways that transportation thinkers can address inequality within a new urban practice:

• Changing how we think about transit.Defining success.
• Defining success.
• Intentionally harnessing technology.
• Applying impact investment.

Many transit systems in American metropolitan areas were built to move people from suburban areas to a downtown urban core. That mindset needs to change. Transit should not simply be about moving people from one point to another. Instead, it should be thought of holistically, as one piece of a larger system, of mobility, schooling, employment, and all the things that make up our daily lives, with an ultimate target of helping people link to new opportunities.

New technologies are changing how we move, but many technologies are cropped off with little direction from traditional transit and transportation agencies.

Companies like Uber and Lyft have existed for years, but their regulatory and planning implications are still playing out. Emerging investment vehicles are putting capital toward addressing transportation and other needs in low-income communities.

Innovation

The biggest revolutions over the past two centuries in urban environments have happened where technology and city life meet. For Example: The steam engine, the electric grid, and the automobile. Now, I believe, we are on the verge of what I like to call the fourth technological revolution in cities. That revolution is part and parcel of the digital age—and it’s happening where vehicle automation and the Internet converge on city streetscapes. Cities and citizens are still determining how this revolution will play out and change urban life.