ORIGINAL: Sustainable Mobility
Most of the global population will soon be living in towns… urban zones will, therefore, need to adapt and become greener! We look at the latest concepts and innovations for more sustainable cities.
HIT OF THE WEEK
IssyGrid is the name of a new digital system being used in Issy-les-Moulineaux on the outskirts of Paris. Voiture du futur explains what will change for the town’s inhabitants. The system will enable energy consumption in the town’s business district to be optimised. The major components of this new ecological project, version 2.0, are:
- the local production of renewable energy;
- district-level energy management;
- information from citizens for more efficient consumption; and
- the development of electric power in the town!
Growing a city? It seems outlandish, yet various architects are interested in this idea! According to the io9 magazine, instead of seeing the city as a “machine”, many architects imagine it “growing” like a plant. This vision of urban planning also envisages the city as a 100%-biological space in order to be able to accommodate almost 2/3 of the global population by 2050!
Will Optimod’ Lyon be the emblem of the sustainable mobility of the future? It’s very likely, yes! This new application, which was developed for the Greater Lyon area, concentrates all information regarding traffic, timetables and weather for all of the means of transport in the zone (cars, buses, tramways, bicycles, trains, walking, etc.): it’s a world first! Lyon-info specifies that the application will also be available as a voice version for the visually impaired. And finally, a version of the project has been created exclusively for deliveries. It’s a safe bet that this system will spread to other big cities!
BICYCLES AND e-BICYCLES ARE INVADING TOWNS!
Switzerland is falling for electric bikes: this is what the Largeur.com website is reporting. Whereas traditional bicycle sales are sluggish, those of electric bicycles are exploding! They now appeal not only to young people but also to executives. This new attraction to the electric bike is mainly attributed to traffic and parking problems in towns. Arriving at work on time, without excessive physical effort and without having caused any pollution - these are three great reasons to explain the great success of electric bicycles! There remains, nonetheless, room for improvement in one area: cycle paths, which are still insufficiently developed to accommodate this new vehicle flow.
This week, the Carfree France website reports on a recently conducted survey, which looked at policies for sustainable transportation around the world and the role of the bicycle. Why is it that the bike is less popular in France than in Northern Europe? It’s apparently not a cultural question, according to the study! Instead, it’s linked to the different choices made in these transportation policies. Having a better understanding of why bicycles are not well integrated into the French urban landscape would help improve their presence in towns.
The Los Angeles Times reports some good news: following San Francisco, Portland, New York and Detroit, Los Angeles is to develop its own bike-share system! Angelenos, the inhabitants of LA, will be able to use these two-wheelers for $1.50 per hour! In addition, the bicycles will be fitted with digital systems that will make them easier to be located. When will we see Hollywood stars on bikes?
NEW INFRASTRUCTURES FOR ELECTRIC CARS
An affordable electric car by 2022? That’s the objective set by the “EV Everywhere Challenge” launched in March 2012 by the President of the United States, Barack Obama. This programme, which involves the best scientists and is supported by the US Department for Energy, has ten years to design an electric car at a competitive price and with improved performance: greater range, less charging time, etc. For Voiture du Futur, the United States wishes not only to reduce its energy dependency but also to take leadership of a market that remains relatively unstructured.
A charging terminal at home? That’s what Veolia is proposing, reports Actu-Environnement! The company will come to your home to assess the current electric set-up and plans to install the terminal once the vehicle has been bought from the dealer. Remember that the National Decarbonised Vehicles Plan envisages the construction of 900,000 charging points by 2015 and 4 million by 2020.
A year after its launch, how is Nice’s electric-car-sharing system, Autobleue, getting on? Very well, according to the economic daily newspaper Les Echos! In one year, the first 2,500 members have covered almost 400,000 km (almost 249,000 miles). To celebrate, the Mayor of Nice benefitted from Autobleue’s first anniversary to introduce a new model of the vehicle, which is adapted for people with reduced mobility. A good track record!
Avem tells us about a new European green motorway project! IBM and ZSE, an energy supplier in Slovakia, are currently studying the possibility of constructing an electric motorway that would link Vienna (Austria) to Bratislava (Slovakia). The challenge for the two suppliers will be to perfectly position each charging point depending on consumers’ requirements and also on the constraints of the electricity network.
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