Transpolis, the transport town, which should open in 2013, will allow innovations in the field of urban transport to be tested and evaluated. 45 partners from both the public and private sectors, including Renault Trucks, Grand Lyon, Areva and even EDF at the forefront, have joined forces in order to provide the €33m necessary to undertake this project, the only one of its kind in Europe.
The transport infrastructures of a typical town will be recreated life-size so as to allow those involved in the project to carry out simulations and to propose efficient solutions to improve traffic, for both people and goods, in towns.
One of Transpolis’ priorities is the design of a future bus stop, in order to observe new ways of transmitting information to passengers and to test battery-charging systems, located at each stop, for electric buses.
Moreover, energy solutions are at the heart of this project. As well as the bus stop, an urban charging station will be built so as to evaluate the advantages of, and barriers to, the different energies available (natural gas, hydrogen, bioethanol), and the most efficient ways of supplying vehicles in an urban environment.
What will our roundabouts look like in 10 years?
Transport flow hubs will also be examined closely to limit, for example, how often vehicles stop and start, which is responsible for excessive CO2 emissions. From traffic lights to public lighting to the type of road surface, roundabouts and crossroads are going to be totally re-thought in order to reinforce transport efficiency, security and fluidity.
Goods transport will also be subject to various simulations, with an intermodal platform designed to simulate road-rail hubs. There are many issues: making hubs secure, improving the speed at which one changes means of transport, planning for temporary storage space in the areas surrounding towns and even facilitating the rapid exchange of data related to unloaded goods.
In order to supervise everything, a control tower will co-ordinate the information gathered by all the cameras, sensors and measurement tools that are dispersed throughout the site. The data will then be analysed by teams of engineers and researchers from all over the world.
Transpolis’ medium-term objective is in fact to become an international Research and Development centre in the field of urban transport.
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