Page 14 - July- August 2018
P. 14
Future of Mobility from page 13 the Design Spark, his group discussed resilient. ORNL is the largest science
ways to make their community more and open science lab in the country
further intelligent mobility development self-sufficient as they move from a rural and is focused on research involving
in Tennessee, focused on connected and community to a large, urban corridor. efficient transportation across multi-
automated vehicles, trucking and freight One of the action items his group modal systems. According to Davies, “By
efficiency, cybersecurity, electric vehicles, identified was to form a multi-jurisdiction 2030, we’ll have 1.2 billion more internal
and multimodal commuting. The group planning committee. They’ve made combustion engines on the road before we
is made up of 20 public and private great progress by forming a four-county make a transition to electric or automated
founding members, including Stantec. regional committee to examine these vehicles. So, we are currently working to
issues and started a public education/ make them as efficient as possible from a
TDOT and Knoxville shared the outreach program on the topic of smart fuel economy and emissions standpoint.
progress they are making in identifying mobility. We’re codeveloping engines and biofuels.
mobility solutions with the larger group. We’re working to optimize energy
To start, they are installing new Advanced TennSMART’s Fall Meeting is likely efficiency, biofuels and renewable fuels in
Transportation Management Systems to be held in Chattanooga, and a day these areas.”
(ATMS) - the central software used to prior, they are considering holding
control Intelligent Transportation System a Design Spark with representatives Today, especially with the known
devices like traffic signal timing, CCTV from Chattanooga and the surrounding challenges of climate change, unbalanced
cameras, and Dynamic Message Boards. counties. At the meeting, the group social and economic equity, and an
Automated Traffic Signal Performance would present their outcomes as part of obesity epidemic, all linked to our built
Measures, an advanced software a 360 validation process to spur further environment and transportation systems,
monitoring system for traffic signals, discussion and gain consensus among the changes to our current mobility systems
are also being installed in Knoxville larger group. are required. And, Tennessee is setting the
and they are working with GridSMART stage by investing both time and money
on pedestrian detection to prevent Another founding member active into smart mobility research and options.
conflicting green lights if someone is in in TennSMART, Oak Ridge National Footnotes:
the crosswalk. The city is also examining Laboratory (ORNL), will play a significant 1. https://ideas.stantec.com/sustainable-
the use of adaptive traffic signals (traffic role in advancing research needed to move resilient-design/resilience-in-a-transportation-
signals that change according to actual Tennessee to the next level. According to system
traffic demand). Rich Davies, PhD and Deputy Director 2. https://ideas.stantec.com/autonomous-
of ORNL’s Sustainable Transportation mobility/autonomous-vehicles-could-ruin-
And, kudos to John Ward, Assistant Program, now is the time to take steps our-downtowns-but-not-if-we-act-now
Planning Director of Cookeville. At to make transportation systems more
14 TPW July/August 2018