Sygic, a GPS navigation app with over 200m users worldwide, has unveiled its Smart Mobility Platform for cities. Advancing beyond navigation apps geared specifically towards individual drivers, the platform offers local authorities tools to analyze, develop and implement an intelligent traffic management system comprised of high-performance computation backend services and mobile apps for commuters.
The Sygic Smart Mobility Platform aims to tackle the issue of worsening traffic congestion worldwide, negatively affecting the environment, economies, and quality of life. According to the European Commissions, in Europe, urban traffic congestion costs the EU nearly 1 per cent of its annual GDP and accounts for 40 per cent of all CO2 emissions. In the US, according to a report by the Texas Transportation Institute, the average commuter spends 42 hours each year stuck in traffic. In general, travelling in congested conditions increases travel times by a factor of 3-4 and carbon dioxide emission by 80 per cent.
Sygic’s platform offers local traffic authorities the ability to roll out central navigation and traffic management apps that monitor and optimize commuters’ use of public and personal transport, from cars to bicycles, to public transport services. The platform also enables the development of more traditional mobility apps for commuters, allowing citizens to reach their destinations via the fastest and least congested routes possible.
Collecting data from Sygic mobile app users and leveraging Azure cloud supercomputing resources, the solution provides real-time predictions of traffic levels, commuter behavior analysis, and forecasts of possible scenarios should certain infrastructure be closed or altered in any way. With this data, city officials can coordinate use of a city’s infrastructure to make sure traffic flows as efficiently as possible
Additionally, cities can utilize the platform’s data analysis to evaluate infrastructure quality and sustainability, to predict the effect of infrastructure changes, and to plan public transit routes, priority lane strategies, waste management and street cleaning services, and efficient traffic signaling.
"Our first-of-its-kind platform will allow city authorities to promote specific forms of transport at specific times, creating traffic mitigation strategies that save the city time and money,” said Radim Cmar, Sygic smart city solution architect. “At the same time, commuters will be provided with fully integratable mobile navigation apps, giving them the optimal routes all the way to their parking spot at any hour...This platform is capable of revolutionizing how we move in and out of our cities.”