Energy-Saving Methods for Urban Travel and Public Transportation in Smart Cities

Author(s):  
Shan Li ◽  
Ying Gao ◽  
Tao Ba ◽  
Wei Zhao

In many countries, energy-saving and emissions mitigation for urban travel and public transportation are important for smart city developments. It is essential to understand the impact of smart transportation (ST) in public transportation in the context of energy savings in smart cities. The general strategy and significant ideas in developing ST for smart cities, focusing on deep learning technologies, simulation experiments, and simultaneous formulation, are in progress. This study hence presents simultaneous transportation monitoring and management frameworks (STMF ). STMF has the potential to be extended to the next generation of smart transportation infrastructure. The proposed framework consists of community signal and community traffic, ST platforms and applications, agent-based traffic control, and transportation expertise augmentation. Experimental outcomes exhibit better quality metrics of the proposed STMF technique in energy saving and emissions mitigation for urban travel and public transportation than other conventional approaches. The deployed system improves the accuracy, consistency, and F-1 measure by 27.50%, 28.81%, and 31.12%. It minimizes the error rate by 75.35%.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6816
Author(s):  
Fatih Gunes ◽  
Selim Bayrakli ◽  
Abdul Halim Zaim

This paper is intended to improve the performance of signalized intersections, one of the most important systems of traffic control explained within the scope of smart transportation systems. These structures, which have the main role in ensuring the order and flow of traffic, are alternative systems depending on the different methods and techniques used. Determining the operation principles of these systems requires an extremely careful and planned study, considering their important role. Performance outputs obtained from the queue analyses made in previous studies formed the input of this study. The most important techniques are used in the effective control of intersections, such as signal timing: in particular, the use of effective green time and order of the transitions between phases. In this research, a traffic-sensitive signalized intersection control system was designed with the suggested methods against these two problems. The sample intersections were selected from three cities with the highest population density as the case study area. In the analysis of the performance of the connection arms of the selected intersections, flow intensity data were taken into consideration, as well as the arrival and service rates. Based on this, the outputs of the two proposed models regarding the use of phase transitions and effective green durations were compared with two other adaptive control systems and their positive results were shared. The results showed that signalized intersections, operating with a well-planned and correctly chosen technique, better regulate density and queuing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 293 ◽  
pp. 03002
Author(s):  
Xiaoguang Chen ◽  
Jinting Sui ◽  
Xufeng Tai ◽  
Heqi Li

With the arrival of the “5G” era and the digital economy era, the development of the city has permeated all aspects of the city, and with the emergence of “smart city”, it is likely to have “smart” everywhere in the future city. At the same time, “Future Smart Transportation” was proposed as a discussion topic at the “2019 (8th) International Smart City Summit and Smart Ecology Expo”. The research and development of the driverless bus stops will spur the driverless bus stops to take on the past with a brand-new look, welcome the future, and contribute to the sustainable development of the smart city. Taking the driverless bus station in Zhengdong New District as an example, this paper explores the sustainable development of a smart city through the creation of manned (open)-shared (transition space)-driverless (semi-enclosed space) space and the introduction of modular design approach. To connect people’s work, life and transportation, and derive a new public transportation environment based on manned bus stops, namely, intelligence, sustainability, environmental friendliness and safety, thus create a smart transportation pilot to embrace the bright future of sustainable smart cities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12891
Author(s):  
Olasupo O. Ajayi ◽  
Antoine B. Bagula ◽  
Hloniphani C. Maluleke ◽  
Isaac A. Odun-Ayo

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), also known as Smart Transportation, is an infusion of information and communication technologies into transportation. ITS are a key component of smart cities, which have seen rapid global development in the last few decades. This has in turn translated to an increase in the deployment and adoption of ITS, particularly in countries in the Western world. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the developing countries of Africa and Asia, where dilapidated road infrastructure, poorly maintained public/mass transit vehicles and poverty are major concerns. However, the impact of Westernization and “imported technologies” cannot be overlooked; thus, despite the aforementioned challenges, ITS have found their way into African cities. In this paper, a systematic review was performed to determine the state of the art of ITS in Africa. The output of this systematic review was then fed into a hybrid multi-criteria model to analyse the research landscape, identify connections between published works and reveal research gaps and inequalities in African ITS. African peculiarities inhibiting the widespread implementation of ITS were then discussed, followed by the development of a conceptual architecture for an integrated ITS for African cities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (2(116)) ◽  
pp. 26-43
Author(s):  
Mariusz Luterek

  Purpose/Thesis: This paper examines the position of public libraries in smart city strategies. To that end, I verify two hypotheses, H1: Cities analyzed employ strategic plans to define their path to “smartness”, and H2: Public libraries are a part of these strategies. Approach/Methods: Top 30 cities from the ranking of IESE Cities in Motion Index 2019 were se­lected. The hypotheses were tested through the analysis of strategy documents and web portals. In most cases, the analysis relied on English versions of said documents/portals, occasionally compared with the national language version . Results and conclusions: The process of verifying the first hypothesis led to identifying four groups: G1, comprising cities with a general strategy, presumed to include smart initiatives (3 cities), G2: cities with a separate “smart city” strategy, published on their own portal, or a related website (15 cities); G3: cities with subsites/portals briefly summarizing their activities in the area of ‘smart’ development (10 cities), and G4: cities with many sectoral strategies, presumed to include smart initiatives (2 ci­ties). The analysis allowed the identification of a number of areas in which public libraries already contribute to smart development: smart building, smart infrastructure, smart services, digital skills and life-long learning, sustainability, creativity, digital citizenship and smart business Originality/Value: Although many library and information science scholars study smart cities, no similar study has been conducted, and therefore, this paper, with its unique approach, offers a new perspective on the discussion on smart libraries.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4748
Author(s):  
Adrian Serrano-Hernandez ◽  
Aitor Ballano ◽  
Javier Faulin

Urban distribution in medium-sized cities faces a major challenge, mainly when deliveries are difficult in the city center due to: an increase of e-commerce, weak public transportation system, and the promotion of urban sustainability plans. As a result, private cars, public transportation, and freight transportation compete for the same space. This paper analyses the current state for freight logistics in the city center of Pamplona (Spain) and proposes alternative transportation routes and transportation modes in the last-mile city center distribution according to different criteria evaluated by residents. An analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was developed. A number of alternatives have been assessed considering routes and transportation modes: the shortest route criterion and avoiding some city center area policies are combined with traditional van-based, bike, and aerial (drone) distribution protocols for delivering parcels and bar/restaurant supplies. These alternatives have been evaluated within a multicriteria framework in which economic, environmental, and social objectives are considered at the same time. The point in this multicriteria framework is that the criteria/alternative AHP weights and priorities have been set according to a survey deployed in the city of Pamplona (Navarre, Spain). The survey and AHP results show the preference for the use of drone or bike distribution in city center in order to reduce social and environmental issues.


Smart Cities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 919-937
Author(s):  
Nikos Papadakis ◽  
Nikos Koukoulas ◽  
Ioannis Christakis ◽  
Ilias Stavrakas ◽  
Dionisis Kandris

The risk of theft of goods is certainly an important source of negative influence in human psychology. This article focuses on the development of a scheme that, despite its low cost, acts as a smart antitheft system that achieves small property detection. Specifically, an Internet of Things (IoT)-based participatory platform was developed in order to allow asset-tracking tasks to be crowd-sourced to a community. Stolen objects are traced by using a prototype Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)-based system, which sends signals, thus becoming a beacon. Once such an item (e.g., a bicycle) is stolen, the owner informs the authorities, which, in turn, broadcast an alert signal to activate the BLE sensor. To trace the asset with the antitheft tag, participants use their GPS-enabled smart phones to scan BLE tags through a specific smartphone client application and report the location of the asset to an operation center so that owners can locate their assets. A stolen item tracking simulator was created to support and optimize the aforementioned tracking process and to produce the best possible outcome, evaluating the impact of different parameters and strategies regarding the selection of how many and which users to activate when searching for a stolen item within a given area.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 3658
Author(s):  
Qingfeng Zhu ◽  
Sai Ji ◽  
Jian Shen ◽  
Yongjun Ren

With the advanced development of the intelligent transportation system, vehicular ad hoc networks have been observed as an excellent technology for the development of intelligent traffic management in smart cities. Recently, researchers and industries have paid great attention to the smart road-tolling system. However, it is still a challenging task to ensure geographical location privacy of vehicles and prevent improper behavior of drivers at the same time. In this paper, a reliable road-tolling system with trustworthiness evaluation is proposed, which guarantees that vehicle location privacy is secure and prevents malicious vehicles from tolling violations at the same time. Vehicle route privacy information is encrypted and uploaded to nearby roadside units, which then forward it to the traffic control center for tolling. The traffic control center can compare data collected by roadside units and video surveillance cameras to analyze whether malicious vehicles have behaved incorrectly. Moreover, a trustworthiness evaluation is applied to comprehensively evaluate the multiple attributes of the vehicle to prevent improper behavior. Finally, security analysis and experimental simulation results show that the proposed scheme has better robustness compared with existing approaches.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3404
Author(s):  
Dawid Szostek

The purpose of the article is to determine how personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness to experience) affect organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment (OCBE), especially in the context of energy saving. The purpose is also to verify the hypothesis that this impact is significantly moderated by individuals’ demographic characteristic (sex, age, length of service, work type and economic sector of employment). To achieve the purposes, a survey was conducted in 2020 on 454 working people from Poland. The analysis was based on structural equation modeling (SEM). The research model assumed that particular types of personality affect direct and indirect OCBEs, including energy-saving patterns. The model also included the aforementioned demographic characteristics of respondents. I proved that personality traits have a significant impact on direct and indirect organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment. In the case of direct OCBEs, the energy-saving items that were most significantly affected by employee personality were: I am a person who turns off my lights when leaving my office for any reason; I am a person who turns off the lights in a vacant room; I am a person who makes sure all of the lights are turned off if I am the last to leave. The strongest predicators were Neuroticism (negative relationship) and Agreeableness (positive relationship) for direct OCBE, but Extraversion (positive relationship) and Agreeableness (negative relationship) for indirect OCBE. The impact of an individual’s personality on OCBE was significantly moderated mainly for indirect behaviors. This applied to all the analyzed demographic variables, but it was stronger for women, employees aged up to 40 years, those with 10 years or more experience, office/clerical workers, and public sector employees. The article discusses the theoretical framework, research limitations, future research directions and practical implications.


Author(s):  
Jiali Zhou ◽  
Haris N. Koutsopoulos

The transmission risk of airborne diseases in public transportation systems is a concern. This paper proposes a modified Wells-Riley model for risk analysis in public transportation systems to capture the passenger flow characteristics, including spatial and temporal patterns, in the number of boarding and alighting passengers, and in number of infectors. The model is used to assess overall risk as a function of origin–destination flows, actual operations, and factors such as mask-wearing and ventilation. The model is integrated with a microscopic simulation model of subway operations (SimMETRO). Using actual data from a subway system, a case study explores the impact of different factors on transmission risk, including mask-wearing, ventilation rates, infectiousness levels of disease, and carrier rates. In general, mask-wearing and ventilation are effective under various demand levels, infectiousness levels, and carrier rates. Mask-wearing is more effective in mitigating risks. Impacts from operations and service frequency are also evaluated, emphasizing the importance of maintaining reliable, frequent operations in lowering transmission risks. Risk spatial patterns are also explored, highlighting locations of higher risk.


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