Why progress can be achieved with a connected transport ecosystem
At Dell Technologies in collaboration with Intel®, we support creating trusted and transparent communities, that leverage technology to improve innovation, liveability, commerce, engagement and sustainability.
At the heart of this – to make these digital communities run optimally and enrich human life – is safety, security and transportation.
Transport, with the right investment and planning, can drive economic growth, build social cohesion, and open accessibility to better healthcare and education. In fact, a report that highlighted the potential of Northern gateways in boosting the region’s economy, released in January 2023, found that: “Investing in improving infrastructure will enable growth, improve access to jobs, and ensure the North is a great place to live and invest.”
But there is work to be done to achieve these goals. Congestion cost the UK economy £9.5 billion in 2022, with London found to be the most congested city in the world. Meanwhile, rail passengers were delayed or disrupted on more than half of all train services departing from 15 of Great Britain’s busiest stations last year. Bus services, meanwhile, are under the support of a Government fares subsidy from January to March 2023, in an attempt to boost ridership and prevent services being pulled.
Greater investment in technology must be part of the long-term answer, to respond to these challenges – more specifically, a better use of data. There is significant potential for more engaging personalised customer experiences powered by intelligence at the Edge – the point where data in the physical and digital worlds intersect.
The opportunities of data innovation
Data centres, the private cloud and on-premises infrastructure can only take data innovation in transport so far. As we move into a future of connected transport, we should ask how operators make more use of technology to run their networks more efficiently?
Computer vision and data analytics at the Edge unlock smoother, more rigorous transit safety and security, and better customer experience: reducing wait times, connecting services, and allowing for live health screening and behavioural analysis. Connected public transport can also significantly reduce wait times by 30% compared to current levels and accelerates city-wide travel. While smart roads can take 30 minutes off an average daily commute, 10-15% improvement in emergency service arrival time and 10% increase in road traffic capacity
The Edge allows greater quantities of data to be processed. Just one autonomous car can generate four terabytes (4000 GB) of data in a single day, while our work with Duos Technologies in the US uses visualisation and AI with Dell PowerEdge servers, to inspect freight trains at a rate 120 times faster than a manual inspection – in the process, generating more than a terabyte of data.
Processing such significant volumes of data requires Edge computing power, which can analyse data at scale, closer to the location it is needed. If we are able to move towards this higher scale and higher performance, opportunities to improve the system will be much greater.
Understand how to collect the right data and how to understand the data you collect
Since the pandemic, public transport travel patterns have become more unpredictable as a result of hybrid working and more people moving out of and commuting into cities, rather than living in them.
Car usage however, has not dropped below pre-pandemic levels in much of the UK. London particularly is one of just three cities in INRIX’s Global Traffic Scorecard of the top 25 most congested cities worldwide, to have seen an increase in traffic since the pandemic.
And while investment in the public transport systems of major cities has continued, they are not joined up with many of the suburban and rural communities whose populations travel into those cities for work. As a result, significant car traffic in major cities comes from out-of-town commuters.
The key is not looking to prioritise further and faster connections between major conurbations but connecting those cities more directly to all of the satellite towns and communities in their region.
Transport operators who are looking to catch up with various changes to people’s lifestyles in the past three years, are struggling to do so, in part because full 2021 census data is still not available. As a result, many are relying on the previous census in 2011, to assess where and when to run services. With outdated data, there are limits to how far innovation can go, while services cannot operate at their most efficient, not necessarily timetabled to reflect contemporary population figures.
This means using greater technological tools to collect more up to date and real-time data. It is an approach that not all operators and authorities can take, particularly in rural communities without significant central funding.
Data, collected in high quantities and interpreted correctly, allows organisations to identify and predict trends before they happen. If we are planning for what we already have, then we are behind the curve.
This could even go so far as to move from a set timetable model of public transport, towards a predictive model that considers likely delays on account of congestion, weather, road closures, changing commuter trends and more factors, to establish how many services should run each day and at what time.
Ensuring all stakeholders are invested
Transport has been traditionally viewed as a logistics sector, with a culture focused on supply rather than demand. There needs to be a customer-centric approach, understanding the service they have come to expect as a result of technology-driven efficiencies in other areas of their lives, such as communication.
Building trust with customers is crucial if transport users are to provide the data operators need. Transparency is key, with organisations who educate their customers on how their data will be used and why this will be to their benefit, more likely to garner loyalty.
It is also about understanding investment holistically across the sector. The overall infrastructure cannot improve when each part is competing for funding. Train companies, bus operators, electric vehicle manufacturers, air and shipping ports, utilities asset management, town planning groups and all stakeholders in the industry must work together to create a true ecosystem, not a series of competing modes of transport.
Collaboration must also extend beyond public and private sector silos, with local authorities and transport operators working alongside third party organisations to help them collect, analyse and monetise their data. It is through this approach that certain route planning and travel booking apps have been able to thrive and deliver a better, more connected experience for customers.
Better together
The final piece of the collaboration puzzle for our transport operators, is finding trusted partners with the technology capabilities to support the digital transformation of the sector. From client to data centre to Cloud to the Edge, Dell Technologies and Intel are driving next generation capabilities with a comprehensive portfolio of trusted solutions.
We are implementing these capabilities through a number of strategies, including our work in digital cities, where technology is powering urban transformation – with transport at the heart, through our urban mobility vertical, where we are working towards predictive planning, and adaptive traffic control and management. The Dell Digital Cities Accelerator is purpose-built to bring enhanced situational awareness to a campus, city or state with enhanced AI/ML analytics and secure data storage.
Find out more about our solutions and how we are defining the digital future of cities, today.
