SMART CITIES & PARKING |
Above: Parking
congestion is
just one of many
modern issues that
causes headaches
for commuters,
shoppers and
residents. But
change is coming…
powered by a combustion engine, and directed
by couple of pedals and a steering wheel.
Nobody but a few visionaries saw this coming.
Henry Ford was one, and his Model T motor
car changed the course of modern history.
“If I’d asked people what they wanted,”
Ford famously uttered, “they’d have said
a ‘faster horse’.”
Learning the lessons from history
To understand what is playing out today,
and why there is such uncertainty around
which type of vehicle – autonomous, flying, twowheel
or four-wheel – will emerge as the true
disruptor, it is worth pausing to consider what
led to Ford’s Model T emerging as the winner a
century ago. Henry Ford and his team were not
the only ones attempting to redefine the future
of urban mobility. At ground level, a welldocumented
race between Ford and George
Selden in America, and between Gottlieb
Daimler, Karl Benz, Armand Peugeot and the
Renault brothers in Europe was taking place,
while the Wright brothers were in a race with
Samuel P Langley and Sir Hiram Maxim to
successfully launch the first flying vehicle. In
1914, a hugely popular ride-sharing program –
the Jitney – caused such consternation with local
government and the tram (or trolley) companies
of the day that it was swiftly legislated out of
existence. By the time it was shut down in 1915,
it was doing an estimated 150,000 rides a day
across North America. In the race to redefine
the cities of tomorrow, what we saw play out in
the urban transportation landscape in the first
20 years of the last century is eerily similar to
what is taking place in the first two decades
of this century. The impact on urban mobility
is likely to be equally as dramatic.
Vehicle ownership is in decline…
And all cars will soon be self-driving. That is
how some see it. But for all the talk of people
no longer wishing to own vehicles, the statistics
tell a different story. Research companies such
as HIS Markit suggest that, while in many
In the race to redefine the cities of tomorrow, what we saw
play out in the urban transportation landscape in the first 20
years of the last century is eerily similar to what is taking place in the
first two decades of this century
056 Intertraffic World | Annual Showcase 2020