City infrastructure and public transport

The business opportunity

When public transport is disruptive, so are the lives of those using it. Buses, trains, trams and ferries being delayed or cancelled can mean people are late to work, for appointments, or even meetings. In a city where the public transport cannot be trusted to run both on time and be of a high quality (especially if you’re paying premium prices for it).

Where xelba comes in

• Sensors deployed in individual modes of transport and vehicles can provide accurate live data on arrival times and any delays, that can feed into popular apps such as City Mapper to keep citizens informed
• When an event is starting or finishing, sensors can connect to smart bus stops and train stations to inform other travellers of expected congestion and make suggestions. This can disperse crowds, making travel safer and more efficientI
• Pollution can be better monitored by equipping modes of transport with sensors to measure CO2 that send data to a central point to enable strategies to combat them to be formulated, and eventually elements of the city be fitted with actuators to respond to a rise in levels.
• With this aggregated data, emergency services will be able to navigate the best routes to where they need to reach without relying on traditionally more manual processes

The result

Equipping modes of transport as well as bus stops, train stations, and other public infrastructure with sensor technology, more can be learned about the way these services are used, where the opportunities lie in improving them, and passing on the benefit of live, accurate data to consumers.