The road ahead – Arup ponders the future of driving

Envision a planet free of site visitors jams, roadworks, and pollution, where your auto drives you wherever you want to go although you sit back and unwind.

This may possibly 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 anxiety-totally free motoring we’ll appreciate in years to come.

Driving in a worldwide context

The report looks at how speedy improvement of our cities, along with climate adjust, dwindling resources and adjustments in human behaviour, will impact our roads, cars 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 each day.

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

Jam tomorrow?

Though the quantity of automobiles on the road is expected to increase by 3% annually until 2030, after that numbers are anticipated to lessen, with individuals more likely to employ automobiles when they need to have them, rather than buying them.

Altering behaviour and rising awareness of the importance of wellness and fitness will also imply that much more folks will, we’re told, turn to walking, cycling and other modes of transport to get around, rather than relying on automobiles.

Charge of the electric car brigade!

These that do drive will look for a lot more environmentally-friendly cars, so gas-guzzling automobiles 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 last longer than they do currently, so drivers will not be restricted to just a handful of miles ahead of having to re-charge.

Ditch the pilot

Automobiles will also become driverless, thanks to fully-automated navigation systems, so you can basically get in, programme exactly where you are going to, and let the automobile do all the difficult perform for you.

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

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

Only connect…

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

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

Solar roads

But it is not only cars which will turn out to be far more technologically sophisticated in years to come.

Arup’s vision of the future includes sophisticated solar panel road surfaces, which would generate 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 advantages as well, as they’d include LED lighting to light the way, as nicely as heating elements to preserve 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 function in undesirable climate either.)

New technologies will generate other possibilities as well, for example, such as concrete that makes use of bacteria to heal cracks, therefore decreasing the need to have for repairs and roadworks which snarl up visitors.

Science reality

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

For instance, Milton Keynes is already charging electric buses wirelessly as portion 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 minimizing the quantity of polluting diesel delivery vans.

Whatever occurs in the future, it is clear that we need to have to take action to tackle not only to make driving a lot more environmentally friendly, but also to reduce the pressure on our infrastructure from our growing population.

The road ahead – Arup ponders the future of driving