The future of mobility - on new paths against climate change

In many cities, people looking for a parking space account for a third of inner-city traffic. The exact opposite of what modern cities want to stand for: more quality of life and less traffic. For a lively center with a strong retail trade. The intelligent combination of different modes of transport is crucial. The keyword here is "intermodal travel”. This refers to the interaction of cars, trains, bicycles, pedestrians and smart data processing. In other words, a dynamic combination of different means of transport for seamless door-to-door connections.

Fifteen minutes to destination

Hamburg, as host of the ITS World Congress 2021 , has shown what this could look like. The ambitious goal: it should take no longer than 15 minutes to get from A to B within the city area in 2030 - no matter where A and B are located. If all mobility services such as public transport, car sharing, rental bikes, e-scooters and shuttles ”network” and “communicate” with each other, seamless connections can be created: Mobility as a Service. It is expected that one day in the not-too-distant future, timetables will be superfluous because any means of transportation will be available at any time. 

The ITS strategy is also a climate strategy: By 2030, traffic in the inner city is to be significantly reduced and thus "congestion-free." There are about 800,000 cars in Hamburg. Add to that the port operations, which are responsible for just under a third of the city's emissions. If you want to change this, you have to offer real alternatives. These are impressively presented by the city of Hamburg. 

• The car as part of the solution: Searching a free parking space is not only annoying, but also environmentally harmful. This can be improved by digitization. For example, if you analyze the traffic structure and combine this with statistical data on the use of parking spaces, you have a good basis. If real-time data on current parking space occupancy is then incorporated into the calculation, a free parking space can be found quickly. This is necessary at least until parking is completely automatic, without our intervention: Automated Valet Parking is a driverless parking service that drivers can use in conjunction with an app. More ...
• The congestion-free city center: In the long term, it is the best way to sustainably improve the climate. An intelligent city toll could help. Unlike time-based toll systems, a T-Systems solution is based on occasion-based toll collection. Charges are no longer the same rate for everyone, but based on the distance traveled, length of stay, vehicle type or emission class. More ...
• Cycling is fun: People moving through the Hanseatic city on bicycles should also notice decisive changes by 2030. Together with Continental AG, Telekom is developing a collision warning system for cyclists. With the help of GPS data and sensors, the paths of cars and bicycles are calculated in advance for the following five seconds at a time. If the foreseeable paths of two vehicles collide, the "collision warning system" sends a signal to the road user's smartphone via mobile communications. More...
• Public Transport 2.0: High passenger volumes place special demands on the frequency of service, even beyond the city limits: More than 300,000 people commute to Hamburg every day for work. If delays and cancellations were the consequence of the traffic turnaround, this would not be very helpful. That's why IT-supported, interconnected systems for planning and control are particularly important. An exciting solution comes from the Ruhr region: the transportation companies of several cities use a joint system. It records all bus and train movements in real time, optimizes connections, and provides displays and vehicles with dynamic passenger information. More...

All of these solutions thrive on the digitization of transport. They are based on technologies such as edge and cloud computing, artificial intelligence and, not least, network access technologies such as 5G .

Making the raw material “data” accessible

One-third of inner-city traffic is parking seekers. One-third of all deliveries worldwide arrive later than originally scheduled. Food often arrives at the recipient's door spoiled. What do these two examples have in common? In both scenarios, it would help if stakeholders had access to existing data. And they could analyze and evaluate it. 

If I look at the food delivery, I know where the shipment was loaded and when. I also know approximately where it should be at the moment. What is unknown is whether, when, why and at what point a delivery is delayed. Such data is missing in the process chain. But it is precisely this information that would make it possible to take countermeasures in real time. In fact, all this data is available at different points. 

The same applies to inner-city traffic. If you want to create meaningful relief here, you have to intelligently network different means of transportation. The keyword here is " intermodal mobility ”. Data sharing is the key here. However - the problem is obvious: Some transport options such as public transport, cabs, e-scooters are in direct competition with each other. They do not trust each other. 

Without mutual trust, however, it won't work. This is where technologies like the Data Intelligence Hub (DIH) can help. The most important feature of the DIH is data sovereignty: each company decides for itself with whom and for what purpose it shares its data. Data transfer is encrypted and takes place exclusively between the chosen partners. External or central storage is not necessary. In its role as neutral trustee, Telekom ensures the sovereignty of the data - the supplying company retains full control over its data at all times and is free to control who receives what information. 

Reliable, European standards

If companies cannot be absolutely certain that the data they share will only be used for its intended purposes, they will not provide their data. But "trust" is only one side of the coin. The technical aspect is just as important: lack of data continuity is an almost traditional problem in many areas of business. The reasons are manifold: individual data formats and different systems. A lack of standardization leads to increased complexity. This in turn makes data exchange and thus supply chain-wide networking more difficult. 

In order to create reliable security at all these points, initiatives such as GAIA-X and the International Data Space Association (IDSA) have been founded. Their goal is to establish protected data spaces based on a common, European data infrastructure. They span a secure data network across Europe that meets the highest standards of digital sovereignty. Based on common, European standards.