BY EU STUDIO

Updated Monday, May 30, 2022-09:44

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Currently, about 4,000 million people live in urban environments, according to data from the United Nations and the World Bank, who also warn that 60% of the world population in 2030 will live in cities.

In 2050, it is estimated that this figure will be 70%.

In other words, in the coming years between 1,000 and 1,500 million people are going to join cities, something that will mean, among other things, that the use of private cars will also increase.

Today, one million vehicles are sold annually in Spain;

but in ten years, it is estimated that there will be a 50% more car fleet.

Given these figures, the challenge is to find new city models.

Today's cities are congested and polluted, and have poor air quality that affects the health of its citizens.

According to the World Health Organization, 9 out of 10 people breathe highly polluted air, and data from the European Environment Agency state that every year in Spain there are 33,200 premature deaths caused by poor air quality.

In addition, the unlimited entry of private vehicles into cities worsens the safety of pedestrians and cyclists and increases the chances of traffic accidents.

For this reason, it is important to find solutions and new designs: the future lies in citizen-oriented cities and sustainable mobility.

According to experts, this translates into fewer vehicles, greater investment in public transport, the creation of new mobility spaces and prioritizing spaces for bicycles or scooters.

In this sense, the European Union is already working to promote this mobility of the future, which must be environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, technological and universal.

In this way, it will be possible to create high-capacity roads and top-quality infrastructures that adapt to the needs of users.

For its part, for the Government of Spain, innovation and technology will be key aspects in the distribution of European funds, since they will allocate 33% of the European Next Generation Funds to those projects that contemplate the digitization of cities as a base.

Within this paradigm shift, so necessary to build truly healthy cities, new rules are already being established.

Thus, the European Union has approved a law that obliges municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants to implement Low Emission Zones (ZBE) before 2023 and recommends the incorporation of payment for use of the infrastructure.

Solutions for intelligent traffic management

The ZBE are positioned as a key tool for urban traffic management and as the philosopher's stone of future mobility.

They limit the access of the most polluting vehicles to certain areas of the city and, thereby, manage to reduce congestion and, therefore, pollution, including noise in cities.

But not only that, the possibility of traffic accidents is also reduced and the renewal of the automobile fleet for less polluting and more modern vehicles is encouraged.

It is, therefore, one of the most effective measures to decongest traffic and technology is essential for its implementation.

In this sense, Abertis Mobility Services (AMS), the technological subsidiary of the Abertis Group, has extensive knowledge of the management of these areas.

Their platform for the management of the ZBE is flexible and scalable and they implement it working from the analysis of the real needs of each city.

In addition, from AMS they are in charge of the operation and management of the service, being one of its added values.

Its main challenge is to offer a system that meets the needs of cities, adapting the system to the needs of each case, offering an

end-to-end

service and, finally, directly managing citizen queries.

But beyond implementing the LEZs, the technological subsidiary of the Abertis Group considers that it is important to also apply a rate with payment mechanisms for congestion or pollution and access charges based on congestion.

In this way, vehicles that are allowed to access and circulate in controlled areas, such as hybrid and electric cars, would internalize the cost of congesting the streets.

These resources would also serve so that cities could invest in improvements in public transport, technology and sustainable mobility infrastructure.

Therefore, the company is confident that a combination of these two systems will be of great benefit to citizens.

On the one hand, the installation of LEZs will encourage the replacement of more polluting cars with others that are less polluting, thus reducing pollution and contamination in cities.

On the other hand, by including a payment for use, the massive entry of private vehicles into cities would be avoided, favoring the use of public transport, reducing congestion, traffic accidents and pollution.

All this would mean a great improvement for the health and safety of people.

London is the clear success of this urban traffic management system.

In three years, the number of old and polluting vehicles in the city center has been reduced by 50%, which translates into 17,400 fewer polluting cars and the equivalent of a traffic jam 48 km long.

Ecopeaje, the pilot project in Valencia

The Ecopeaje project in Valencia studies an inclusive model for regulating urban mobility to determine how a pay-per-use system could be implemented.

To do this, it is proposed how prices should be set based on five criteria: functional diversity, large family, self-employed, electric vehicles and residents.

Abertis Mobility Services (AMS) has joined this initiative that seeks to reduce traffic in the Valencian capital and make the city net carbon by 2030. Currently, more than 50% of the emissions emitted within the city come from transport and, therefore, drastically reducing the use of private vehicles is one of the most effective solutions.

To do this, AMS has a Cloud solution for intelligent traffic management through payment for use and payment for pollution, based on satellite technology and the connected vehicle.

Currently, it is already implemented in the United States.

"Urban traffic management does not only involve the implementation of an LEZ, since in the future we will once again have cities congested with electric vehicles. The solution, according to the experts, involves implementing pay-per-use or eco-toll systems, which in addition to reducing pollution, improve congestion and allow resources to be invested in improving public transport

", assures

Christian Barrientos, CEO of Abertis Mobility Services (AMS).

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