Green wave of mobility

Changing climatic conditions, dwindling resources, rampant urbanization: Our mobile society is in a predicament and is also in the middle of a paradigm shift. The development of mobility strategies for the future has to – and will have to – place emphasis not only on economic efficiency but increasingly on ecological intelligence.

"I won't sell the future for quick profits." This statement by Werner von Siemens is more than 100 years old, but it is truer than never before. Today, we are already consuming 25 percent more resources than the Earth is capable of providing in the long run. Unless countermeasures are taken, CO₂ emissions from the consumption of energy in the face of a rapidly increasing world population will amount to about 85 gigatons by the year 2050 - and will have equally drastic global consequences, as repeatedly prophesized in the horror scenarios put forward by climate researchers.

Against this alarming backdrop, and especially in the area of mobility, which is responsible for more than one-quarter of the entire final energy consumption, the significance of environmental awareness has changed dramatically in the past years. "Nice to have" has long become an absolute "must". Governments around the globe are planning investments in environmental stimulus projects to the tune of more than 430 million U.S. dollars. But it is above all the descendents of Werner von Siemens are proving most impressively how much they still feel committed to his credo. With a "green budget" of around one billion euros up to now and with around 14,000 related patents, the company he founded is considered to be the worldwide number one in this field.

For example, experts expected that CO₂ emissions could be cut by around 1,000 tons for the city of Münster in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, where the innovative adaptive Sitraffic Motion traffic light control had recently been installed. This was because coordination of the red and green phases to actual traffic volumes proved not only to boost speeds along the model axis by up to 15 percent, but also reduce traffic congestion and the average number of stop-and-go cycles. As a result, noise levels and exhaust emissions were lowered by a considerable extent.

Consequently, even experts became enthusiastic about the results of this pilot test. The authors of the study undertaken by the Ruhr University in Bochum summed it up by saying, "the resulting scope of improvements is unexpectedly high". Likewise, the responsible persons in the local government stated that they had been pleasantly surprised by the clear reduction in waiting times and stops for all road users, which amounted to over 35 percent during both the morning and afternoon rush hours. Bochum's researchers mainly found the reasons for this in the "extensively faster channeling of through-traffic" and, not least, also in the "improved quality of the traffic situation for city buses".

As far as the architecture of future mobility is concerned, the integration of all means of transportation is generally held to be the only really meaningful perspective. This is because only the vision of "Complete Mobility", i.e. completely integrated, multimodal transportation and logistics solutions, promises the so urgently needed combination of economic and ecological efficiency for the transport of people and goods today and tomorrow. "Complete Mobility" is the answer to the most important challenges of our time, to the world's ever increasing population and urbanization, just as much as the threats posed by climate change and the finite nature of fossil raw materials for the generation of energy. Regardless of whether it is about traffic in metropolitan areas or linking of major cities and countries, mobile societies will only be able to keep moving if all traffic and information systems are intelligently coordinated and work together perfectly.

The current example of London, among others, gives us a hint of the advantages that can be achieved alone from the focused networking of the infrastructures for road, rail and air transportation. To cut that city's greenhouse gas emissions, a "low-emission zone" was introduced citywide, allowing vehicles to enter only if they satisfy a prescribed exhaust standard. By means of video scene analysis, special cameras record vehicle license plates, a technology that the transport organization Transport for London (TfL) is already using in the inner-city toll zone. A tightly meshed public transport network provides the basis for such measures. The Desiro UK regional multiple-unit trains, the Heathrow Express or Heathrow Connect airport feeders and innovative buses featuring hybrid technology ensure mobility in the metropolitan region. For example, a bus using the Siemens hybrid drive operates with up to 38 percent fewer emissions, is particularly quiet when accelerating and does not emit any exhaust gases in the process.

The result of this sum of technical innovations is that street traffic in London's inner city has decreased by around 20 percent. That corresponds to a CO₂ reduction of 150,000 tons per year. And the best thing about it is that all those things are not to the detriment of individual transportation speed, but even benefits it. The reason for this is that, at the same time, the flow of traffic has been boosted by no less than 37 percent according to the result of an investigation already conducted eight months after introduction of the city toll. On average, commuters now need almost one-sixth less time to get to work.

Given that the mass use of automobiles is just beginning, "Complete Mobility" is also playing a considerable role in China. In addition to the current five-year plan from 2006 to 2010, which provides for around 350 million euros for the expansion of the traffic infrastructure, the Chinese government has now launched additional economic stimulation programs to the total value of more than 452 million euros - of which a good three-quarters will be invested in highways and railroad lines, construction and expansion of airports, and other measures for improving the traffic infrastructure.

But it goes without saying that ecological efficiency of mobility can be achieved not only by intermodal networking, but also by intelligent optimization measures within the individual traffic modes. For road traffic, for example, there are not only adaptive traffic light controls and innovative traffic control computers but, only recently, also an environmentally based traffic management system that includes current air pollution values in its control decisions. With the aid of this instrument, it is now also possible to set up temporary environmental zones in cities, or to at least introduce a city toll price model based on differentiated pricing. Moreover, by reducing the level of traffic looking for parking spaces, modern parking guidance systems promise further cuts in exhaust emissions, while conversion of traffic lights to new LED technology ensures energy savings of about 90 percent in comparison with conventional traffic signal installations.

In public rail transit as well, there is a whole series of possibilities for improving the already comparatively favorable eco-balance even further. For example, around 30 percent of the required drive energy can be saved with the new CCU process. On the basis of data relevant to the vehicle and route, the system calculates an efficient movement profile and the automated control ensures an energy-optimized mode of operation. Oslo's metro system is a particularly impressive example of environmental friendliness. Not only because its components and materials are completely recyclable, but above all because it consumes around 30 percent less energy than its predecessors thanks to consistent lightweight design and regenerative braking systems.

Energy saving is also a concern at airports, where powerful conveying systems have to get baggage to its destination quickly and reliably. Over 56,000 bags per hour are sorted and distributed at Incheon International Airport, South Korea's most important airport. Capacities like these are based, among other things, on highly efficient geared motors with efficiency values of 94 to 96 percent. Temporary terminals like the CapacityPlus, which was installed in Lisbon on the occasion of the 2004 Soccer European Cup, can also contribute to conserving resources. Based on components that can be set up and dismantled in different locations, the terminal helps to cope with time-limited bottlenecks in capacity.

And, thanks to technical revolutions and evolutions, quite a lot can be achieved for the environment in classic logistics as well. For instance, large sorting systems of the Open Mail Handling System (OMS) type handle up to 50,000 consignments per hour and save as much as 30 percent energy compared to the previously used processes. The United States Postal Service (USPS) is also taking new approaches and, in this case, crucially shorter ones. The PARS (Postal Automated Redirection System) reduces the number of incorrect deliveries and unnecessary trips, thus cutting fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions.