Golf Car Options Magazine Juy 2019 Golf Car Options Magazine July 2019 | Page 20

INSIDE By Stephen Metzger Managing Director Small Vehicle Resource, LLC [email protected] www.smallvehicleresource.com THE GATED COMMUNITY The Gated Community as a Testing Ground for Smart Urban Mobility W hether you think climate change is an issue of highest importance or simply bogus science, the fact is that political and social policies are being mobilized and set forth on the supposition that can and must be done about it. Two of the critical issues that are a subset of climate change is the growing urbanization of soci- eties around the world with the attendant problems of congestion and pollution. In the effort to find solutions, it is likely that the gated community will play a significant role as a testing ground for a wide range of efforts, including autonomous (self-driving) vehicles, ride-sharing via shuttles, on-de- mand car-sharing, reducing the need to actually owning your vehicle. So, what are the urbanization trends around the world, what new products will emerge out these new trends, and how could the big picture be effectively addressed via the uni- verse of mobility found in the gated commu- nity lifestyle? are experiencing very rapid growth. Cities in Asia such as Dhaka in Bangladesh, Shanghai in China, and Mumbai and Delhi in India have not only, at this point, high levels of popu- lation density, but acute levels of air pollution. The United Nations Commission on Trade and Develop- ment’s (UNCTAD’s) 2017 Handbook states that looking forward to 2050, the (projected) increase in urbanization to 68 per cent of the world’s population “…equates to an addi- tional 2.4 billion people living in urban c`enters – an increase of 193,000 persons per day for the next 33 years.” In Africa, urbanization is occurring at a faster pace than any other geographic location in the world. The Center for Strategic International Studies, citing World Bank figures states that, “In 2015, SSA (South Sahara Africa) included thousands of urban centers, of which two mega-cities had over 10 million inhabitants; three cities had between 5 and 10 million; and another 41 cities had populations between 1 and 5 million. While far less intense, the urbanization trend is also occur- ring in the United States and Europe. It is also true that the U.S. and Europe with far wealthier populations are better equipped, than the developing economies of Asia and Africa, to deal with issues of congestion and pollution. Global urbanization Transport systems a key target Most of the focus is, for good reason, on large and rapidly growing cities. It is well-docu- mented that urban centers in Africa and Asia 20 WWW.GOLFCAROPTIONS.COM In any event, aside from the diverse issues of urban locations around the world and the differences in abilities to cope