Information Systems can get us to our destination quicker, whilst aiding the environment!

If you can drive, you’ll be able to relate to this picture I’m going to paint for you:

You’re sitting in your car with the ghostly company of four empty seats. Taking up one car length and width of space on the road. Completely participating in the inefficient use of road space and thus causing congestion. You’re heading towards a destination that public transport could have brought you to at a cheaper price in a financial and environmental sense. But, the idea of using public transport doesn’t cross your mind because it’s so inefficient and not flexible.

For those of you who can’t drive, you probably don’t have the luxury of choice and are forced to use the public transport options that are available to you. Those who are lucky enough to drive, like myself, we get stubborn and lazy when it comes to using public transport. If we feel that using the car will be a more time efficient and flexible manner to get to our destination, we are more than happy to do so without hesitation. One of the reasons that I’ve found is that most public transport take some of the most ridiculous convoluted routes that go so far out of the way, you’re actually left wondering how it’s possible for your chosen method of transport to get to your destination. I’m going to focus on buses. Buses in Ireland are probably some of the most inefficient modes of transport, this is because of the outrageous almost circular routes that they take. However, a bus is the best form of transport if you’re looking to get as close as possible to a very specific destination.

Buses are, in comparison to cars, more environmentally friendly, this is due to the emissions produced per passenger compared to a car. Also, they take way less space per passenger on the road compared to cars. Therefore, they’re also space efficient. Buses don’t cost a whole lot either, probably just a bit more than the cost of petrol for an equivalent trip in a car. The biggest drawback about buses as mentioned before is the routes that they take which are not time efficient in terms of getting from one place to another.

How information systems can come in and help is to make public transport more dynamic. How does a public transport device become more dynamic you may ask? Well it takes into account where it’s passengers are looking to go along and comes up with the best route in order to get them to it. A company that has this idea is VIA. VIA proposes to use shuttles that can fit several different passengers, that can be hailed using an app. A user would simply put in their current location or preferred pick-up point and their destination. Then a shuttle is assigned to that passenger, based on the route the shuttle is currently already taking. This results in a lack of convoluted routes. Volkswagen have proposed a similar initiative called MOIA.

While passengers are sharing this shuttle and they are all going to different locations, this is where information systems play their part. Each of the passenger’s destinations are taken into account and an algorithm tries to find the shortest route in order for the shuttle to reach such destinations. The algorithm uses traffic information that is available from a traffic information system. Taking into account the traffic information, the shortest route is then calculated and the route that the shuttle takes is set.

Why this is a huge step in the future of public transport you’re probably wondering what is the environmental benefits? Well it’s likely that in the future that these shuttles will be electric powered. This obviously is more environmentally friendly method than typical fuel based engines on the shuttles. VW’s MOIA project have already established the use of electric powered shuttles. Another aspect is that if this proposed method of public transport were to be rolled out on a large scale it would definitely change people’s attitudes about public transport. These dynamic shuttles would be time efficient and also be efficient in the routes they take. This efficiency would not be possible without the information that is available from traffic information systems that are taken into account when calculating the quickest route. With less convoluted routes, popularity of these shuttles would surely increase, thus result in more efficient road space usage, decreases in road congestion and reduced emissions.

If you would find a YouTube more informative why not check this out:

https://youtu.be/TcBrchkBSBE

References:

[1] Via. 2020.Home | Via. [online] Available at: <https://ridewithvia.com/> [Accessed 29th February 2020].

[2] Volkswagenag.com. 2020.MOIA In Hamburg: Volkswagen Subsidiary Offers Shuttle Service. [online] Available at: <https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/stories/2019/02/moia-the-e-shuttle-against-the-traffic-gridlock.html> [Accessed 29th February 2020].