The International Institute for Sustainable Development recently reported that transportation “is at the center of many economic and social development challenges, accounting for about 64% of global oil consumption, 27% of all energy use, and 23% of the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide emissions.”
This past April in the U.S., President Biden announced an ambitious goal: for the United States to achieve a 50-52% reduction from 2005 levels in economywide net greenhouse gas pollution by 2030. Then, in June, the Federal Transit Administration launched the Sustainable Transit for a Healthy Planet Challenge to encourage transit agencies to build on progress already made and to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions from public transportation to support Biden’s goal.
Transportation organizations around the globe are implementing strategies to help achieve sustainability goals, and technology can help.
ATMS integration
Many transportation organizations, such as departments of transportation (DOTs), are employing advanced traffic management systems (ATMSs), which collect, process and store real-time traffic data. An ATMS integrates technology and is used to improve traffic flow, decreasing congestion (and thereby pollution) and increasing safety. ATMSs incorporate data from cameras, sensors and other sources and can also be used to reduce crash rates.
Advanced collaboration workspaces can be used to collect and share traffic data with regional DOTs and state partners by pulling in ATMS feeds for a shared view among all stakeholders. This helps achieve organizational goals, such as reducing pollution, reducing gridlock, increasing safety and testing new opportunities with IoT integration and autonomous vehicles.
Data sharing for full sustainability
The U.S. DOT said about sustainable highways: “In the transportation industry, projects and systems serve many different and sometimes competing objectives, including safety, mobility, environmental protection, livability, and asset management. A sustainable approach seeks to meet all of these needs while hitting economic targets for cost-effectiveness throughout a highway’s life cycle…Sustainability encapsulates a diversity of concepts as well, including efficient use of funding, incentives for construction quality, regional air quality, resilience considerations, livability, and environmental management systems.”
The incorporation of all of these aspects of sustainability in DOT or citywide plans for sustainability involves the capture and interpretation of massive amounts of data ̶ from numerous sources or departments. If all of these data sources operate independently, organizational goals might never be fully met.
That’s where the benefits of collaboration technology shine. For example, live maps, video streams, the integration of infrastructure data, environmental information and the incorporation of the ATMS feeds combine to create unified situational awareness. All parties involved, both internal and external, can share their data for the good of the initiative. And the ability to define one’s own collaboration space means stakeholders can control the data they want others to see and ensure data security.
Learn more
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