Mobility in future cities
Cities are growing more prominent, and traffic is expanding unprecedentedly. Most of us will experience city life at a certain level, and within the next 30 to 50 years, the way we travel around and within the cities will have changed a lot.
What do you think the near future will look like in your city?
I stay in Singapore and must admit that one of the worst things about city traffic is the noise. Since the weather is hot, it is always nice to keep the windows open to the breeze going through the house. But when the noise from buses, cars, and motorbikes mixes in the “fresh” air, you get exhausted and keep the windows closed and turn on the air conditioning. Hence the rising energy consumption in Singapore.
I am looking forward to the Green Plan; this plan was recently established and aims to make a greener Singapore. This includes planting more green areas and parks, introducing renewable energy, and building an electric vehicle fleet.
We should remember that to become more sustainable, the plan is also to strengthen recycling habits and build a resilient society with better awareness of the circular economy.
There are so many things that need to get fixed in cities around the world…
Coming back to the noise pollution — What if we could all have a touch of nature near our homes?
Just thinking out loud here… if cities were to be designed differently. With a focus on the citizens and less on mobility (cars, trucks, etc). We need to move things around, but could there be a way to think of this from different angles?
Some cities, like Oslo, have directed traffic under the city, which has resulted in only necessary traffic going through the city. These years, there is a city in Saudi Arabia, that is being designed and built; going under the name NEOM the Line, this city is supposed to bring nature to the citizens—having more park-like areas in the city, with limited traffic.
The vision here is to develop an underground transport system. In this case two levels, one for buses and other vehicles and another for a hyper-loop.
This means that the “surface” level can be reserved for housing, urban gardens, parks, and other recreational areas, which looks like an excellent idea. But not all cities can build a similar mobility infrastructure.
This means the idea of building an electric fleet, which replaces the current Internal Combustion Engine fleet, will not reduce traffic but may reduce noise and emissions.
Some alternative mobility companies appear on the radar, and one of them is EVE Air Mobility, which plans to provide airborne mobility. So transportation in the air, between buildings will give a quicker travel time for many people but may provide more crowded airspace.
What do you think will happen to future cities?
