COOLHUNT – The walk of the future.

I’ve already talked about transport in the future, but there are also other road users like pedestrians and cyclists. In the cluster transport there was a link to pedestrians and cyclists because in future cities there’s a vision of more of them and less cars and other vehicles. Maybe we don’t have cars anymore in the future. These signals are a step to the future.

WHAT? For example the vision of Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) for the future of urban mobility. They’ve created a concept, which is called the “Urban Future”. This installation is made of a 185 meter square section of roads that is digitally programmed with LED surfaces that uses 3D cameras to sense any movements. (Picture 1) Another example is an idea for a road in the heart of Hong Kong’s business district. The idea is to transform the road into a bus-free zone so that pedestrians can breathe cleaner air. The road will be closed to all vehicles except for necessary transport. (Picture 2) The last example is something that cooperates with driver assistance systems in cars. It tells you were pedestrians and cyclists are even while they are hidden from view. Cellphones could serve as transponders and cars will react with an emergency braking sequence. (Picture 3)

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WHY? All these ideas are a good example of durability and a vision at the future sustainable cities. I think it’s important that we give a little more attention to a greener environment and more safety. In this case technology is also a big player. These ideas are from last year and I don’t know if they’re actually executed but they have a lot of potential because there’s a lot of pollution in the cities and if we can bring down the number of cars and increase the use of cycles it would be great. People will get more motion and it’s better for the people and the city. How amazing is that. There’s a need to more fresh air in the city and people are looking for a way to implement human movement in their daily life. I think it’s a great combination that will increase the physical and mental wellbeing of people.  

Sources:

- http://www.gizmag.com/digital-roads/20738/

- http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1499424/joint-study-proposes-vehicle-ban-cleaner-air-des-voeux-road-central

-       - http://phys.org/news/2014-01-cell-life-savers-cars-pedestrians.html

COOLHUNT – Flying busses and sharing cars.

The next five coolhunts will be about sustainable cities in the future. I’ve made 5 clusters of several matching coolhunts. The first is about transport in the future sustainable cities. Right now cities are often grid locked and traffic jams are very normal. That’s because of the amount of cars that are driving around. A lot of accidents happen due to human errors, can this be solved by technology?

WHAT? There are multiple solutions to this problem and a lot of innovators are busy solving this problem. The first thing is a SOFT Blimp Bumper Bus. (Picture 1) it’s a little bit sci fi with its dangling tentacle chairs. It’s a new strategy that will reorganize the city to fit better to human needs and increase the environmental contact.
Another thing is the vision of ‘The Volvo Group’. They believe that instead of offering single products the solution is in the complete transport with added costumer value. They have a ‘City Mobility Program’ in collaboration with partners. Their solution is to pay per kilometer of specified transport capacity instead of everybody owning one car. (Picture 2)

Jürgen Mayer had founded a new urban setting that is based on using a combination of outside satellite systems and GPS systems in cars that will supervise the immediate surroundings. (Picture 3) In that way the car can navigate itself autonomously. Because of this all kind of technologies that support driving like traffic lights are unnecessary.

 

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WHY? These three signals are all very interesting because they shine a new light on transport. Not only the products need to be adapted, also the world around it. There is a lot of potential for these ideas because they fulfill needs like ‘togetherness’ and ‘digitalization’. Because of urbanization the cities are growing tremendously. Because of these smart solutions it will become easier to move through cities faster and more save. The quality of life will also be influenced especially the physical, social and mental wellbeing. If people feel more save they will be more satisfied. Thereby transport in the future will be more social orientated because people have to work together to come up with smart mobility solutions. That’s also why it has a lot of future growth potential.

Sources:

- - http://inhabitat.com/nyc/soft-blimp-bumper-bus-terreform-one-designs-giant-jellyfish-buses-for-nyc/terreform-blimp-bus/

-  - http://www3.volvo.com/investors/finrep/sr14/en/sustainabletranspor/futuretransportsolu/rethinking-the-futu.html

- - http://www.d-talks.com/2010/09/j-mayers-urban-mobility-vision/