Abstract Simplified
The Smart City concept uses advanced technologies to improve city services and the quality of life for residents. It aims to enhance current services, upgrade infrastructure, engage citizens, and support sustainable urban development. A crucial part of this concept is daily mobility, essential for urban prosperity. As cities grow and more people live in urban areas, managing transportation, especially with private cars, becomes more complicated for traffic experts.
This paper explores how the Smart City concept can be applied in Croatia. The findings show a strong willingness to adopt this concept, with Smart Mobility being a key part. Smart Mobility includes three main areas:
- Intelligent Use of Technology: Using information and communication technology smartly.
- Smart Public Transport: Improving public transportation systems.
- Smart Parking Technologies: Enhancing parking management with technology.
Most surveyed cities are involved in Smart City projects and are ready to invest in implementing these concepts.
Introduction
Introduction Simplified
The Smart Mobility concept is quickly becoming popular both in research and real life. As more people move to cities and global urbanization trends continue, traffic planners face increasing challenges. Cities around the world are striving to create sustainable traffic systems, which are crucial for a healthy urban environment. However, economic growth and heavy use of private cars lead to traffic congestion, environmental damage (like noise and pollution), and poor investment decisions in transport infrastructure.
Key EU documents guiding smart mobility development include:
- White Paper 2001
- European transport policy for 2010: Time to decide.
- Green Paper 2007
- Towards a new culture for urban mobility.
- Action Plan on Urban Mobility 2009.
- White Paper 2011
- Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area – Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system.
This paper will explore the Smart Mobility concept, its key indicators, good practices in EU countries, and the current situation in Croatia. Here’s a brief overview of what each chapter covers:
- Chapter 2: Defines Smart Mobility and explains the benefits for local governments implementing it.
- Chapter 3: Discusses smart mobility indicators, their importance for assessing current conditions, and why different cities need different indicators.
- Chapters 4 and 5: Describe the current state of Smart Mobility in EU countries and Croatia, highlight successful solutions for better mobility, and discuss how these solutions are being implemented in Croatia.
The Smart Mobility Concept Simplified
A Smart City uses advanced information and communication technologies (ICT), innovative business models, and solutions to make city operations more efficient, share information with the public, and improve the quality of services and overall citizen welfare.
Smart Mobility is a key part of the Smart City concept. It involves using various technologies to improve transportation systems.
Here’s why it’s important and what it aims to achieve:
- Technological Integration: Advanced ICT is crucial for developing Smart Cities. These technologies help manage and improve transportation systems.
- Urban Mobility Challenges: Cities face significant issues such as the rise in private car usage, road accidents, traffic congestion, limited public spaces, and economic stagnation. These challenges push local governments to find sustainable and eco-friendly mobility solutions.
- Smart Mobility Solutions: The concept uses real-time and historical data, combined with ICT, to optimize travel times. This leads to:
- Reduced road space usage
- Less traffic congestion
- Fewer road accidents
- Lower emissions of harmful gases
Digital Solutions: Focus on balancing the demand and supply of transportation for people and goods efficiently.
Smart Mobility Indicators Simplified
Smart Mobility is an integral part of the Smart City concept, focusing on optimizing urban transportation. This optimization is achieved through the use of advanced information and communication technologies (ICT). Here’s a simplified breakdown:
- Goals of Smart Mobility:
- Reduce Costs: Economic, environmental, and time costs.
- Importance of Indicators:
- Selection Criteria: Indicators must be carefully chosen for each city due to unique characteristics such as urban layout, population, socio-economic factors, administration, transport issues, and financial capabilities.
- Key Documents:
- Sustainable Urban Mobility: Recommends selecting 22 indicators to address both passenger and freight transport needs.
- Future of Urban Mobility 2.0: Provides 19 indicators used to rank 84 cities.
- Urban Transport Benchmarking: Offers best practices for choosing public transport indicators.
- SMART Principle:
- Specific: Clearly defined.
- Measurable: Quantifiable.
- Achievable: Realistically attainable.
- Relevant: Important to the goals.
- Time-bound: Set within a timeframe.
- Planning and Implementation:
- Indicators help measure the effectiveness of smart mobility strategies and ensure they meet citizen needs, improve quality of life, and maintain health standards.
Example of Smart Mobility Indicators (Table 1)
| Factors Evaluated | Smart City (SC) or Conventional City (C) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| (MO1) Sustainable Mobility Urban Plans (SUMPs) | SC > 2 | With SUMP |
| C = 2 | Without SUMP | |
| (MO2) Integrated Payment Method in Multimodal Transport Systems | SC > 2 | Smart card and smartphone payment |
| C = 2 | Common tickets | |
| (MO3) Deployment of Alternative Modes | SC > 2 | Integrated payment in Public Transport |
| C = 2 | Bicycle registration | |
| (MO4) ICT in Traffic Control | SC > 2 | ICT technologies integrated |
| C = 2 | Basic control |
Key Points:
- High-quality indicators are essential for understanding the current state of mobility and identifying improvement measures.
- Common issues include lack of systematic data collection, inability to align with EU and global trends, and insufficient data processing.
By addressing these indicators and challenges, cities can develop better strategies for achieving smart and sustainable mobility.
Examples of Good Practice in EU Countries Simplified
Smart Mobility is being implemented in various EU cities, with the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany leading the way. Over the past 20 years, the approach to mobility infrastructure has shifted. Instead of just building more roads, the focus is now on using technology to make existing infrastructure work better.
Key Points:
- Technology Integration: Smart technologies improve road safety and reduce environmental impact.
- Future Growth: Technology use is expected to grow, influenced by budgets and increased awareness.
Best Practices in the Netherlands (Table 2)
| Smart Mobility Solution | Solution Explanation |
|---|---|
| Smart Corridors | Creating highly intelligent motorways using the latest Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). |
| Intelligent Junctions | Reducing travel times with interactive communication between vehicles and traffic signals. |
| Joint Deployment | Providing motorists with detailed roadwork information via secure WiFi, with cars as mobile traffic data sources. |
| WEpods | Autonomous vehicles (without steering wheels or pedals) traveling a fixed route between Ede-Wageningen railway station and the campus. |
| Truck Platooning | Trucks with advanced driving support systems traveling closely together, communicating with each other. |
| FREILOT Project | Communication between traffic lights and trucks to give speed advice and display time remaining to green light. |
Public Transport and Parking Management
Technologies and Benefits:
- Internet of Things (IoT), smart cards, cloud computing, mobile devices, and software enhance public transport and parking management.
- Smart Cards: Simplify fare charging, offer multiple charging options, and can be used for various services.
- Smartphone Apps: Serve as payment methods and provide real-time traffic, public transport, and parking information.
- Current Technologies:
- Public Transport: Smart cards, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, planning and organizing software, data collection devices, data processing software, real-time information systems, and smart transport stops.
- Parking Management: Apps for optimizing parking spaces, sensors for counting available spaces, smart cards for charging parking fees, and parking management software.
These practices demonstrate how technology can optimize urban mobility, making transport systems more efficient, reducing congestion, and improving the overall quality of urban life.
Smart Mobility in the Republic of Croatia
Current State and Research Findings
Smart City and Smart Mobility are relatively new concepts in Croatian cities. The adoption of smart mobility solutions is just beginning, with limited implementations like smart bus stops, smart cards and displays, and real-time data apps.
Research by the Department of Urban Transport (2017):
- Conducted on 23% of Croatian cities (128 cities).
- Collaboration with the Association of Cities.
- Focus on understanding the implementation and knowledge of Smart Mobility and Smart City concepts.
Key Research Findings:
- 32% of cities are already involved in Smart City initiatives.
- 64% plan to start implementing Smart City solutions.
- Three main components of Smart Mobility:
- ICT technologies
- Smart public transport
- Smart parking
- Current Smart City solutions include:
- Air quality control
- Traffic control
- Smart parking
- Future Smart Mobility plans involve:
- Expanding ICT technologies
- Enhancing smart parking
- Improving traffic control
- Developing smart public transport
- Most cities are willing to allocate financial resources specifically for Smart City and Smart Mobility projects.
Examples of Implemented Solutions:
- Nextbike: Public bike sharing
- Uber and various taxi apps
- Smart Parking Apps:
- Split: Smart parking
- Zagreb: m-parking
- Rijeka: Parking management
- Smart Cards in Public Transport:
- Zagreb, Osijek, Rijeka, Sisak
- Smart Logistic Solutions
- Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMPs) for several cities
Conclusion
Smart mobility is essential for the future of urban transport systems. Ongoing scientific activities and advancements in transport and urban mobility are driving improvements in smart mobility. Various European cities are making efforts to implement Smart City concepts, focusing on sustainable urban mobility plans and identifying critical Smart Mobility indicators.
Key Takeaways:
- Smart Mobility plays a crucial role in developing Smart Cities, especially in the context of global urbanization and economic growth.
- Croatian cities are at the early stages of Smart City implementation.
- There is a need for standardized urban mobility databases to facilitate Smart City development.
- Future research should focus on:
- Updating indicator databases with recent methodologies.
- Developing sustainable urban mobility plans for each city.
- Securing financial resources for Smart City and Smart Mobility solutions.
This approach will help Croatian cities integrate Smart Mobility seamlessly into their broader Smart City strategies, enhancing the quality of life for their citizens and contributing to sustainable urban development.