Can Controlling Vehicles Make Streets Safer and More Climate Friendly?

Sweden has long been at the forefront of road innovation and is again leading the way with trials of a technology known as geofencing. From a report: In April 2017, a man drove a stolen truck into a crowded shopping district in central Stockholm and crashed it into a department store, killing four people and injuring 15 others. The terrorist attack prompted the Swedish government to investigate how digital technology could be used to prevent these kinds of incidents in the future. It began a four-year research program to test one type, geofencing, in urban environments. Geofencing is a virtual tool in which software uses GPS or similar technology to trigger a preprogrammed or real-time action in vehicles to control their movements within a geographical area. It can regulate a vehicle's speed within the zone, determine whether the vehicle belongs there and automatically switch hybrid vehicles to electric driving mode. Johannes Berg, senior adviser for digitalization at the Swedish Transport Administration, said the technology can improve traffic safety and lower emissions. It also has the potential to adjust speed based on road and weather conditions, and to ensure compliance with regulations, like stopping a vehicle if a driver doesn't have a permit to enter a geofenced area, he added. In simple uses -- like when a map with restrictions is downloaded to a vehicle before the start of a trip to reduce speed automatically when it enters a low-speed zone -- vehicles do not need to be connected to an outside source, Mr. Berg said. But in more advanced applications -- real-time use, for example -- vehicles must be connected. Rules and regulations are in a tech cloud and could be changed based on the actual position of the vehicles, he said. "The cloud service can access the engine of the vehicle using the telematics connection of the vehicle." Sweden, which began a series of geofencing trials in 2019, has long been an innovator in vehicle-related safety. In the 1990s, it introduced Vision Zero, an approach to safety that takes human error into account. The goal is to eliminate all traffic deaths and serious injuries by creating multiple layers of protection; if one fails, others will create a safety net. Sweden now has one of the lowest crash death rates in the world, and many cities globally have implemented the approach. Earlier this year the U.S. Department of Transportation officially adopted the strategy to address a dramatic spike in the death toll in the United States. In Stockholm, geofencing pilot programs have focused on commercial traffic in the city center, assessing such things as whether deliveries to businesses could occur at lower speeds at night when streets typically have fewer people. [...] In another trial, sensors added to pavements monitor pedestrian flow, which have been able to trigger speed reduction in pilot vehicles. "The trucks are actually decreasing their speed automatically," Mr. Berg said.

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