Objective of SMARTZONE BUFFER
The city of the future will have to work with interventions and no longer allow traffic safety, livability and climate to be compromised. Smart steering will have to take place already at the “gate” in this city. Traffic should not be guided past schools or places with high emissions. Trucks without reservations for loading and unloading or insufficient opportunity for safe driving/maneuvering in zones should be barred.
SMARTZONE BUFFER creates this function and supports the design of a smart, safe and livable city. Space in cities is limited. Livability and traffic safety are coming under increasing pressure. The upcoming densification of inner cities and an increasing need for new housing, will continue to put increasing pressure on the city and its inhabitants. A growing portfolio of products can help urban and regional governments manage livability and traffic safety.
Project approach
SMARTZONE BUFFER is a data platform that provides information on the use of roads and parking spaces. In addition, based on information from the system, municipal policies can be adjusted. In this way, a continuous loop of information is created that in turn can lead to adjustments of flows in the city.
SMARTZONE BUFFER uses open standards (European and/or developed within Talking Traffic) for both the internal and external interfaces. Where these are not yet available they will be developed within the ecosystem with other platform and service providers.
SMARTZONE BUFFER offers users a cafeteria model where one or more services can be purchased, including any new services to be added.
SMARTZONE BUFFER can provide insight into the impact of the digital services based on predefined KPIs. With this, there will also be continuous evaluation and analysis of the operation of SMARTZONE BUFFER which forms the basis for further optimization, improvement and development of new services.
SMARTZONE BUFFER we first build at the Future Mobility Park, a controlled test and learning environment in Rotterdam. This allows us to first see how the solution will work in practice. We can test the application extensively on a small scale with a peer group before rolling it out in the city on a large scale.
Contact V-tron:
Expected results
The answer for cities: “Take charge of outdoor space planning.”
SMARTZONE BUFFER does this by setting up a BUFFER from the edge of the town like a Digital City Gateway.
SMARTZONE BUFFER delivers a data-driven public-private Intelligent ecosystem. This ecosystem creates clear agreements and rules for users to access cities, limiting the negative impact of increasing needs. Rules also apply to desired behavior in the cities, not just to get access! Within the G40, more attention should also be paid to this towards the peripheral municipalities by taking them in tow (combining forces). A lot of mobility starts in the peripheral municipalities and ends in the city. So there is a need for an integral approach.
SMARTZONE BUFFER delivers an integrated solution that is future-proof for the carters within the G40.
SMARTZONE is starting with a number of leading municipalities that have indicated their willingness to contribute to the further development of these services, and then scaling up to national coverage.
figure: Outline architecture
Challenges
However, digital control of city space is not enough. It cannot be separated from the associated energy issue. Currently, warehouses appear in the landscape for storage, transshipment and transport of goods. This “doom” provides storage and transshipment space to parties for their own goods. Logistics parties have their own sheds for loading and intermediate storage.
Tightening regulations on emissions in city centers require zero emission or electric transport for the last-mile to the final destination. The associated energy demand of electric transport is roughly four times the original energy demand of a hall or warehouse. With the current congestion on the power grid, this energy demand cannot be met from the existing grid. Local storage and generation is therefore necessary. However, this capacity is insufficient if logistics concepts are not adapted to it.
SMARTZONE BUFFER therefore not only buffers vehicles at the edges of the city, but also controls the number of transport movements into the city. The buffer zones (from now on BUFFER) will have multifunctional designs and can be combined with mobility hubs, for example.
BUFFER can play a role in energy transition, circular transition, strengthening biodiversity, etc. At logical places on urban borders BUFFER takes care of the exchange of goods and energy flows combined with a workshop with employees for post-processing of reusable elements in planned transport routes to the inner cities.
Project partners:
National Growth Fund funded by Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management based on proposal
Data driven Ecosystem Mobility and Smart City (DEMS) / Dutch Metropolitan Innovations (DMI)
Employees V-tron involved:
