State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

How Data and Cities Can Shape The Future of Mobility

Data-Smart City Solutions: Moving about a city not only drains valuable time and energy, but also contributes a large share of greenhouse gas emissions. Estimates show that the United States economy loses over $120 billion a year due to traffic congestion and that this congestion contributes to 27 percent of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions. The Center for Economics and Business Research predicts that these costs will rise 50 percent by 2030.

Urban mobility systems are largely inefficient today because cities are unable to dynamically route vehicles and coordinate other resources on the road in response to changing traffic patterns.Three present and persistent trends across the world today — an increasing rate of environmental damage, the accelerated movement of populations to urban areas, and exponential growth in the data that we create and consume — present a unique challenge for cities: how can they efficiently and sustainably allocate traffic using data?

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