Wiki - Articles

Introduction
Smart Mobility stands for innovative and much-needed alternative mobility solutions. More people will live in less space and, as a result, increasing traffic congestion will affect the free movement of goods and people. No wonder that Smart Mobility will be one of the most important topics to be discussed at WCIT 2010. The Netherlands has the most crowded rivers, railways and roads in the world, and is already dealing with mobility-related issues that will confront other countries within the next decade. In the 'Living Lab' at WCIT 2010, the Netherlands will introduce IT applications that will enable Smart Mobility.

Supercities and mobility in 2050
Take a leap forward in time to the year 2050. By then, our planet will be inhabited by 9.2 billion people, 70% of them living in cities. Cities like the New York or Paris of 2010 will seem like country towns compared to the supercities that have grown up over the last 20 years. 'Old' cities, built before 2020, will be poorly equipped to accommodate so many people, with overburdened infrastructures. How can people earn a living without access to mobility? How can raw materials be transported to factories and products to consumers when mobility stagnates? We need smart solutions: Smart Mobility for smart cities.

Mobility and the Netherlands
Particularly in the Netherlands, cities will be far bigger and busier. Without new solutions, shortages of space and mobility will make travelling to and within cities a nightmare by 2050, for both businesses and civilians. This situation will threaten the Netherlands' traditional strong position as a mainport and a centre of international logistics. At the end of the 20th century, it was thought that congestion issues could be addressed by investing in public transport, building more roads or adding extra lanes to existing roads. Those measures would soon prove to be insufficient. Society needed a new, integral way of thinking. Once governments started to realise that IT could help to provide structural solutions to mobility problems, smart labour, smart travel and smart living became the new catchphrases. 
 
Light on the horizon
From 2013 onwards, we saw the development of loose and tight, large and small alliances between companies and governments, civilians and companies, governments and civilians, and among civilians. The purpose was to discourage people from travelling. Exactly at that time, when Europe was recovering from the global financial crisis, traffic jams were becoming a very serious and intractable problem in the Netherlands. It was striking that many alliances had emerged from the existing ‘Living Lab’: the Dutch mobility testing ground that had been established in 2010. Small initiatives could become large by effectively co-operating with businesses, governments and scientists. Ultimately, the most effective solutions were the result of (simple) IT applications.

To the solutions: IT & Mobility
There are many examples of innovations and their number is increasing rapidly. In the public transport field, integrated transit ('one card fits all') and real time accessible transit information are expected to be available to the general public soon. In the field of Smarter cars and Smarter roads, toll road systems, real time travel information and intelligent built-in systems in vehicles offer solutions for getting from A to B as fast as possible. Electronic custom forms and freight letters are solutions that will save the air freight and sea freight transportation industry time and money.

Innovations in IT continue. The key words include connectivity, shared services, virtualisation, and cloud. Innovations offer new ways to address a variety of mobility problems. This enables IT specialists to work towards integral solutions (chain integration). Apart from ICT innovations, the world is transforming into a network society in which companies focus on their core business again and engage in strategic alliances. Governments are not only law-makers, but also chain partners. Companies are not just about profit, but also have social responsibilities.

IT and social developments can help to establish effective chain integration, which will lead to fast and safe traffic flows to any destination in the Netherlands. 

WCIT 2010: IT & Mobility
How well do representatives of the IT and mobility sectors know each other? How well do they work together in aligning social problems with technical possibilities? Do we take full advantage of all the mobility solutions the IT sector has to offer? The answer is ‘No’, and that is exactly why both mobility and IT are important topics at WCIT 2010.

WCIT in three days:
- Day I: inspiration (how do we proceed?)
- Day II: innovation (solutions)
- Day III: transformation (how do we do that?)

According to the following themes:
- A new way of working
- Smarter Cities
- Smart Living

And sub themes:
- Individual mobility
- Public transport
- Logistics
- City accessibility

'Living lab' the Netherlands: the following and other topics will be addressed:
- Co-operative systems
   o road pricing per kilometre
   o dynamic traffic management
   o real time travel information
- New forms of co-operation
- Intelligent Transport Systems
   o location based services
   o anti-accident systems

The following global showcases will be discussed:
- The Big Dig (Boston),
- Transrapid (Shanghai)
- Oyster Card (London)
- Singapore
- Kuala Lumpur

Using the following structure:
- one part the day (one white block in the schedule below) can be divided into:
   o 30 minute showcase and vision on the future
   o 30 minutes broadening by e.g. a trendwatcher
   o 30 minutes input from the private sector: ICT-application

The form of the sessions may vary:
- Lectures
- Round table discussions
- Debates
- Interactive match-making
- etc.