The road ahead – Arup ponders the future of driving

Picture a planet cost-free of visitors jams, roadworks, and pollution, exactly where your auto drives you wherever you want to go even though you sit back and relax.

This may sound like the stuff of dreams, but according to the Future of Highways report from engineering consultancy Arup, this could be specifically the sort of tension-free of charge motoring we’ll appreciate in years to come.

Driving in a global context

The report looks at how rapid development of our cities, along with climate adjust, dwindling resources and changes in human behaviour, will influence our roads, vehicles and driving habits.

At present, much more than half the world’s population of 6 billion lives in cities, with a staggering 172,800 new urban-dwellers joining them every day.

According to Arup, this implies that by 2050, around 75% of folks will be reside in cities.

Jam tomorrow?

Though the number of cars on the road is anticipated to improve by 3% annually till 2030, right after that numbers are expected to minimize, with folks much more most likely to hire vehicles when they want them, rather than getting them.

Altering behaviour and increasing awareness of the value of overall health and fitness will also mean that far more people will, we’re told, turn to walking, cycling and other modes of transport to get about, rather than relying on automobiles.

Charge of the electric auto brigade!

Those that do drive will look for much more environmentally-friendly vehicles, so gas-guzzling cars will grow to be an increasingly endangered species. Hardly surprising that the pumps will run dry sooner or later.

Electric cars will grow in reputation, with technological developments enabling batteries final longer than they do presently, so drivers won’t be restricted to just a couple of miles prior to having to re-charge.

Ditch the pilot

Vehicles will also turn into driverless, thanks to completely-automated navigation systems, so you can basically get in, programme exactly where you are going to, and let the car do all the challenging perform for you.

They’ll also be capable to broadcast and acquire details on visitors, speed, weather and any security hazards, adjusting route accordingly.

This enhanced ‘intelligence’ is down to what Arup describes as the ‘Internet of Things’ – the connection of devices, sensors and machines to the web.

Only connect…

At the moment there are around 1.84 connected devices per particular person on the planet, but by 2020 this is expected to rise to around 6.6 devices per particular person.

Cars will even be able to communicate with every single other, letting each and every other know about prospective hazards as well as relaying details about their speed and path.

Solar roads

But it’s not only vehicles which will become more technologically sophisticated in years to come.

Arup’s vision of the future includes sophisticated solar panel road surfaces, which would produce clean and renewable power. Electric vehicles could be charged as they are driving along, or when they are parked, so you wouldn’t have to plug them in overnight as you do now.

Panel heaters

Solar-panel surfaces would have other benefits also, as they’d include LED lighting to light the way, as nicely as heating components to maintain roads snow and ice-totally free.

Drivers would no longer have to worry skidding in freezing circumstances (but there’d be no excuse to take the day off operate in bad weather either.)

New technologies will create other possibilities as well, for instance, such as concrete that makes use of bacteria to heal cracks, therefore minimizing the need for repairs and roadworks which snarl up traffic.

Science truth

These developments may well all sound as although they belong in a sci-fi film, but they may happen sooner than you consider.

For instance, Milton Keynes is already charging electric buses wirelessly as component of a trial led by Mitsui and Arup.

Arup is also functioning with the Crown Estate and Land Securities to use centres to consolidate goods and provide them to shops on London’s Regent Street with the ultimate aim of minimizing the number of polluting diesel delivery vans.

What ever happens in the future, it is clear that we need to have to take action to tackle not only to make driving much more environmentally friendly, but also to decrease the pressure on our infrastructure from our expanding population.

The road ahead – Arup ponders the future of driving