Eco-Efficient Mobility in Smart City Scenarios

Ramon Sanchez-Iborra, Luis Bernal-Escobedo and José Santa
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Ramon Sanchez-Iborra: Department of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
Luis Bernal-Escobedo: Department of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain
José Santa: Department of Electronics, Computer Technology and Projects, Technical University of Cartagena, 30202 Cartagena, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 20, 1-15

Abstract: Cooperative-Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS) have brought a technological revolution, especially for ground vehicles, in terms of road safety, traffic efficiency, as well as in the experience of drivers and passengers. So far, these advances have been focused on traditional transportation means, leaving aside the new generation of personal vehicles that are nowadays flooding our streets. Together with bicycles and motorcycles, personal mobility devices such as segways or electric scooters are firm sustainable alternatives that represent the future to achieve eco-friendly personal mobility in urban settings. In a near future, smart cities will become hyper-connected spaces where these vehicles should be integrated within the underlying C-ITS ecosystem. In this paper, we provide a wide overview of the opportunities and challenges related to this necessary integration as well as the communication solutions that are already in the market to provide these moving devices with low-cost and efficient connectivity. We also present an On-Board Unit (OBU) prototype with different communication options based on the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) paradigm and several sensors to gather environmental information to facilitate eco-efficiency services. As the attained results suggest, this module allows personal vehicles to be fully integrated in smart city environments, presenting the possibilities of LoRaWAN and Narrow Band-Internet of Things (NB-IoT) communication technologies to provide vehicle connectivity and enable mobile urban sensing.

Keywords: personal mobility; eco-efficient vehicles; smart city; internet of vehicles; C-ITS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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