#global gridlock

[go2gether-ca]

Global Gridlock

Times are changing. At the current growth rate, the Earth’s population could reach up to 9.6 billion people by 2050. Not only does exponential population growth demand more resources to meet it, it also means that more cars will be unleashed onto our already congested roads. In fact, the amount of cars hitting the pavement could reach up to 2 to 4 billion cars from today’s count of 800 million by mid-century.

Every single person in this traffic jam helped make it. 

Hate Traffic? You just wait. Traffic isn't going to get any better - unless something changes drastically. So how are we going to avoid our looming fate of Global Gridlock? The idea of the entire planet being stuck in traffic is one that none of us want to see happen. Like many of the World's bigger issues, there is no single solution. To really save our bacon, we need to combine a multitude of ideas and tools, on a variety of scales. Many are looking to electric vehicles to pave the way to a greener future. Unfortunately, cleaner cars may not be the solution here because electric cars don’t take cars off the road, and will still contribute to gridlock. 

“Frankly, four billion clean cars on the road are still four billion cars, and a traffic jam with no emissions is still a traffic jam.”

The bright side...

The millennials don’t seem too keen on buying cars like their parents did, giving some hope to reducing cars on the road. 

There are alternatives. Technology is enabling us to connect with our neighbours and share rides. Carpooling will help cut down on the daily gridlock and dependancy on individually owned cars. There are various options for carpooling depending on your location or trip type. For long distance, once-in-a-while trips, try Pogoride to find rides in the Pacific North-West. For your daily commute, there are services such as go2gether or carma that match you with commuters in your network, who are already heading your way. 

Carsharing services such as car2go, zipcar and modo car co-op allow people to have access to a car just when they need one, rather than using their car for every single trip. 

Traffic is a nonlinear phenomena, meaning that by reducing traffic by even a small amount can have significant impact (note that this also works in the opposite way). Something such as congestion charges could be the answer. 

Car sales may slow naturally, as more of the world’s population move into cities. Some new urban mobility modelssuggest that car sales will drop by 30% by 2020.

We have to think big picture. Cars are not the only problem. Infrastructure, technology and planning can have huge impact on both creating and avoiding congestion. Imagine avoiding driving around the block a couple times to find a parking spot because your car has already reserved one for you. Or knowing when the best time to leave a conference is by considering the schedule of everyone at the event. There are countless ways that better systems can change the way cities see their traffic, we just have to start using them! “We are looking at the emergence of a car 2.0 -- a whole new market, a whole new business model.”

[toogethr]

Making mobility scalable

Watch the below video (from Bill Ford, grandson of you know) to understand the issues and potential solutions to the so-called global gridlock. Mobility gives us freedom and progress. On the flip side also environmental issues and congestion. Electrical Vehicles will solve the CO2 emission issues, but how about congestion?

We need to move towards smart cars and a smart road network, as the current model won't scale much further. With 800m cars on the road now, growing to approx. 2~4bn in 2050 we need to avoid a global gridlock, as this will among others block supply of food and healthcare especially in cities (you know, the places where most people live). Real-time data can be used to optimize the current infrastructure. Hey, that sounds familiar to us!

[rmrathod]

Very insightful talk by Bill Ford, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company: He explain the global gridlock, it's massive impact and likely solutions...