Green mobility on the road
The transport of people and goods is responsible for a total of 25 to 30 percent of the world's final energy consumption. The greates potential for reducing energy consumption is in the area of road traffic. At the same time, a Siemens study based on a model urban district in Munich shows how an almost carbon-free city can become a reality through the coordination of numerous measures to increase the energy efficiency.
Satellite-based mobility management
Galileo, the European satellite navigation system, will also optimize Siemens traffic and logistics solutions – for example, to enable the on-board units in tolling systems to calculate with meter accuracy via satellite without expensive infrastructure facilities. It will also permit the implementation of other entirely new applications, from forward-looking traffic flow control and reduced traffic jams and CO2 emissions to the intermodal tracking and monitoring of goods and vehicles.
Adaptive traffic control
The “green wave” in Muenster, Germany, helps the city reduce CO2 emissions by 1,000 tons a year. The Sitraffic Motion adaptive network control system flexibly adjusts traffic signals to the amount of traffic, thus reducing congestion, noise and emissions. At the same time, it speeds up traffic – by up to 15 percent in Muenster.
City toll systems
With its city toll, the British capital of London has reduced the number of vehicles per day by 60,000 and emissions per year by 150,000 tons. Intelligent video systems from Siemens use “video scene analysis” to record license plate numbers and compare them to a database, thus determining whether the toll was paid. This has substantially reduced London traffic, and traffic flow has improved by over 35 percent.
Intermodal traffic management
In Halle, Germany, more than 50 percent of drivers have switched to trams since the introduction of an intermodal traffic concept. The system informs drivers of the current traffic situation and free parking spaces as well as the departure time of the next tram. As a result, the intelligent networking of Sitraffic system modules has optimized traffic flow in the city of Halle and made using public transportation even more attractive.
Electromobility
Tomorrow’s mobility will require innovative solutions for vehicles and infrastructure. That’s why Siemens is working in several areas of electric mobility: on environmentally compatible power generation and distribution, efficient drive systems and charging stations and the intelligent integration of electric vehicles into overall traffic – with systems for driver information, parking guidance and traffic management. Innovations such as these not only make electric mobility possible, but help reduce CO2 emissions in cities.
LED signaling systems
Signaling systems based on LED technology reduce energy costs by up to 90 percent. LEDs consume only a tenth as much energy as standard incandescent bulbs, but that’s not the only reason more and more operators are adopting this new technology. LEDs also last ten times longer than conventional incandescent bulbs and thus pay for themselves twice over.