The road ahead – Arup ponders the future of driving

Imagine a planet totally free of traffic jams, roadworks, and pollution, where your vehicle drives you wherever you want to go while you sit back and loosen up.

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

Driving in a global context

The report appears at how fast improvement of our cities, along with climate adjust, dwindling sources and changes in human behaviour, will impact our roads, vehicles and driving habits.

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

According to Arup, this means that by 2050, about 75% of people will be reside in cities.

Jam tomorrow?

Although the number of automobiles on the road is anticipated to improve by 3% annually until 2030, after that numbers are anticipated to decrease, with individuals far more likely to hire automobiles when they require them, rather than getting them.

Changing behaviour and rising awareness of the importance of well being and fitness will also imply that far more folks will, we’re told, turn to walking, cycling and other modes of transport to get about, rather than relying on cars.

Charge of the electric automobile brigade!

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

Electric vehicles will develop in reputation, with technological developments enabling batteries final longer than they do at present, so drivers won’t be restricted to just a couple of miles prior to obtaining to re-charge.

Ditch the pilot

Automobiles will also become driverless, thanks to totally-automated navigation systems, so you can simply get in, programme exactly where you’re going to, and let the vehicle do all the tough function for you.

They’ll also be in a position to broadcast and get details on traffic, speed, weather and any security hazards, adjusting route accordingly.

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

Only connect…

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

Vehicles will even be in a position to communicate with every other, letting every single other know about potential hazards as well as relaying details about their speed and direction.

Solar roads

But it is not only vehicles which will grow to be much more technologically advanced in years to come.

Arup’s vision of the future involves advanced solar panel road surfaces, which would create clean and renewable energy. 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 positive aspects too, as they’d contain LED lighting to light the way, as effectively as heating components to maintain roads snow and ice-cost-free.

Drivers would no longer have to fear skidding in freezing conditions (but there’d be no excuse to take the day off perform in negative weather either.)

New technologies will produce other possibilities also, for example, such as concrete that utilizes bacteria to heal cracks, as a result lowering the need for repairs and roadworks which snarl up targeted traffic.

Science truth

These developments may possibly all sound as even though they belong in a sci-fi film, but they might take place sooner than you consider.

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

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

Whatever happens in the future, it is clear that we want to take action to tackle not only to make driving a lot more environmentally friendly, but also to minimize the pressure on our infrastructure from our increasing population.

The road ahead – Arup ponders the future of driving