TALES FROM
THE GATED
COMMUNITY
By Stephen Metzger Managing Director
Small Vehicle Resource, LLC smetzger @ smallvehicleresource. com www. smallvehicleresource. com
Planned Development Communities as Incubators for Future Mobility
Much is being made these days over what is considered to be the future urban mobility transformation, featuring on-demand vehicles, possibly of the autonomous, self-driving type, ride-sharing systems, and, of course, electricity as the principal fuel. The urban mobility transformation movement has spawned international conferences, engineering consulting firms, think tanks, and university research centers around the world.
Urban complexity vs. Planned Development Communities
An example of just one of the international transportation forums on tap is the Future of Transportation World Conference in Cologne, German, to be held on June 19 and 20.
Here is the urban challenge, as stated in the preamble to the conference program:
New technology such as autonomous and self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence and connected services will create new forms of personal mobility, ride-sharing platforms, public transport solutions and completely new urban mobility concepts such as urban air transport solutions.
The introductory conference note goes on to ask
How will these new and existing mobility models integrate into cities of the future, and how will city administrators work with mobility providers, technology companies and public transportation operators to integrate their services into the existing infrastructure?
The issues raised above are complex indeed, largely, when you think about it, because cities all over the world are not fully planned. The emphasis is on“ fully” for as we certainly know, there are untold numbers of urban transportation construction projects going on today that, obviously, have been planned. The issue is that, invariably, these planned projects are undertaken in reaction to unanticipated problems that, in fact, were not planned for.
Planned development communities: Far more fully planned
Take your typical gated community: It is far more fully planned and sustainable than your typical city. Most of these communities have well-laid out roadways, easy access to needed services( library, recreational, entertainment, medical, etc.), and conveniently-located retail centers. Population density is such that personal mobility transportation systems suffice. Our golf car-type vehicles do very nicely for the most part in providing us our personal mobility needs. That is not to say that some of the new technologies mentioned above would not be welcomed, such as reliable self-driving vehicles( either owned or on-call), ride-sharing, and even public transportation solutions that better link us to the outside-the-community world.
The Future of Transportation World Conference puts it this way:“ The … Conference will examine MaaS( acronym for Mobility as a Service) and what it means to all current mass-transportation providers, automotive manufacturers, rail operators, taxi firms, new mobility providers and small-scale private providers of last-mile transportation operations of the future. The challenges of integrating and regulating so many forms of transport and so many providers will be significant …” So, why not simplify things, especially since so many of these technologies are in their infancy?
Gated communities as ideal incubators for mobility concepts
Gated communities could be the ideal laboratory for experimenting with diverse mobility concepts. How about a fleet of
14
WWW. GOLFCAROPTIONS. COM