Smart Transportation: Bringing smart cities into reality

Ritesh Deokar Mar 26, 2020

Smart cities aren't lofty daydreams drawn in blueprints. They are the amalgamation and integration of the highest possible technologies that the industry can provide for a highly connected and technology-friendly urban infrastructure. It's not a surprise after all, with Frost & Sullivan market report stating that the smart city industry is going to be worth $1.56 trillion by 2025.

India in June 2015, announced its flagship program ‘Smart Cities Mission’, where it aimed to develop 100 Indian cities that are sustainable and citizen-friendly. Five more Indian cities have been added to the list in the 2020 general budget this year.

Smart cities are the natural evolution of our current urban infrastructures and we should not be taken by surprise when we find ourselves in a more livable future.

Smart transportation: A key building block for a smart city

One of the most crucial aspects of the smart city initiative will be making our Indian roads smarter and safer. Assurance, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton, in its 2016 report mentioned that Smart Cities would be driving India towards advanced modes of transportation and automotive technologies, opening doors to increase GDP. However, with a total road length of 47 lakh kilometers, which is trodden by 65% of total freight and 80% of passenger traffic, India is yet to nullify issues of inadequate public transportations, poor roads and highways, poorly managed traffic, clogged parking, vehicle theft, lack of modal options and hazardous pedestrian walkways.

Furthermore, India's accident and fatality rates are among the highest in the world. According to Geneva based International Road Federation (IRF), at present India accounts for 10 percent of global road accidents with more than 1.46 lakh fatalities annually.

Hence, this is where we need to investigate both the physical infra-management and high road-security, that will help in weeding out infrastructural hurdles from the country’s roads and highways.

Security Marrying Infrastructure:

Road conditions, be it local streets or national corridors, are to be mended, maintained and managed by respective authorities. However, to achieve the state of complete standardisation in smart road infrastructure, installation of technologies like “intelligent video systems” is imminent.

Intelligent video systems

Intelligent video systems are a platform which allows technologies and devices to smoothly synchronize and fulfill the functions of making the roads safer. Road surveillance is critical as it tracks road vehicles, analyze patterns and behaviors, and detects abnormalities and anomalies before any mishap occurs.

In a country like India, non-compliance of road-safety rules, road-based crimes, and weather-worn degradation of roads are common observations. A smart and open Video Management System (VMS) and smart analytics would then allow users to study and analyze data and the information collected to better foresee and prevent transport issues such as road blockages make improvements to road conditions, vehicle accidents and traffic conditions, and will lead the way in creating more manageable and effective security systems.

Transform Transportation with Openness, Safety and Innovation

Smart road safety management demands that advanced communication systems, smart card ticketing, GPS, ITS, CCTV cameras and in-vehicle systems such as passenger information system, safety and lighting systems synchronize and work together. With different technologies functioning in different languages, open-source VMS becomes the only interpreter that can aid multiple unique technologies and software to integrate. As an open-source technology, smart VMS gives maximum scope for scalability where different kinds of technology can be integrated.

Smart open-sourced VMS makes it possible for easy processing and retrieving of video footages from onboard cameras wherever and whenever required. The retrieving of the data is encrypted and this ensures zero-vandalism. The feeds can also be combined with other video recordings from different stations to make it easy to investigate incidents and export evidence.

With the rise in migration from rural areas and towns, urban areas are facing an ever-rising number of commuters and vehicular transportations, and this is creating new challenges. Also, even though 4G is present in India, our country is still facing connectivity issues, where internet reach is not prevalent in several urban areas. In such low or intermittent connectivity conditions, modern VMS technologies are well-adapted to transmit data.

Smart VMS has got our backs.

India has opened to the concept of Smart Cities but has yet to work out the basic infrastructure. It is a steady process, and smart video management can serve as a propeller in speeding up the necessary improvement of road conditions while ensuring commuter safety.

Smart cities are about giving everyone equal rights on the road along with the security that every person deserves, and at the same time prevent lives and property from succumbing to mishaps and poor road-safety management.