Mobility and Transportation in the 21st Century

Although vital to the economic functioning of a city and the well being of its inhabitants, the movements of people and freight increasingly threaten the quality of life. The rising levels of congestion, traffic accidents, and emissions of noise and pollutants create an ever-increasing need for sustainable transportation and mobility strategies and policy measures.

The initiative strives to contribute to a system in which all urban residents move freely and send and receive freight effectively, conveniently, and affordably while striking the right balance between: (1) freight and passenger transport in the provision and use of urban infrastructure, and (2) mobility and transportation needs and the environment.

Research scope is defined to capture an integrated view of a system involving two inextricably linked components: the environmentand an information-rich, dynamic, adaptive transportation system. The vision is one in which networked sensors are used to measure the current state of the transportation system and the environment, and the collected data is mined and fed to state estimation and prediction models, whose results are in turn fed to decision and control algorithms. With this view, questions can be addressed involving (i) the energy and environmental impacts of existing and new freight distribution and mobility concepts, (ii) the impact of future vehicle, fuel and information technologies, and (iii) the optimum balanced mix of policy options to reduce environmental impact making urban goods distribution and human transportation more efficient.

Research has integrated, yet distinct, research thrusts:

(1) Sensing, Data Analysis and Information Dissemination: At the core of our approach, is the collection of real-time data measuring traffic flows, noise, air pollution levels, etc., using networks of sensors, both stationary and mobile. The goal is to improve transportation efficiency and effectively increase infrastructure capacity "bit-by-bit" through the use of information technology.

(2) Modeling, Simulation and Optimization: Models and simulations are developed to gain an understanding of the impacts of various concepts, technologies and policies, with the objective of contributing to the knowledge of future transportation and logistics systems design. One objective is to develop and evaluate demand management approaches, such as dynamic pricing strategies, to shave the demand peaks and fill-in the valleys. Another is to identify network design elements in nature that are transferable and applicable to the logistics and information networks needed to sustain future freight transportation.

(3) Future Freight Transport Vehicles (both conventional and non-conventional): Concepts for future freight transportation will be developed and evaluated, using the data and models developed in the other research thrusts.

The goals are to: (1) Assess potential actions by government or the private sector that can lead to a more effective and benign freight transport system; (2) Evaluate the potential to expand infrastructure capacity "bit-by-bit" using advanced information and optimization technologies; (3) Provide next-generation freight transport vehicle and logistics concepts and quantify their expected impacts; (4) Adapt and transfer knowledge and practices from disparate disciplines to identify applicable design characteristics, algorithmic advances, and technologies; (5) Define demonstration projects to apply and evaluate the theories and technologies developed in our research; (6) Build a Center of Excellence to facilitate communication and joint work; and (7) Develop a cadre of new researchers and professionals committed to urban freight transport, and produce new educational materials made universally available through MIT’s open courseware initiative.