Smart transportation system: Mobility solution for smart cities

Smart cities need an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) which can meet their transportation requirements. Transportation in a smart city should be hassle-free, environment friendly, and of connected and shared vehicles for better public transportation services. An ITS offer these through better traffic control, energy and fleet management. The best fit for this is the Electric Vehicle (EV) which also resolves the energy issues of the future. EVs equipped with intelligence i.e., Autonomous Electric Vehicles (AEVs) adds the connected and shared layer required by a smart city. These are capable of communicating the relevant transportation information with other relevant receivers through Vehicle-to-anything (V2X) communication. This work proposes an ITS, whose framework depends on the communication between these EVs and utilizes the applications of an IoT network. MQTT protocol is considered for data exchange within the IoT cloud. Availability information of public AEVs to passengers is shared through a mobile application. Moreover, these AEVs can also be utilized for the energy management of smart cities by connecting them with smart grids. Illustrative study is made to optimize and regulate the traffic and public transportation for the route between Masjid-e-Nabvi and Masjid-e-Quba of Madina city which faces huge traffic during Hajj. The route discusses retrofitting for introducing smart transformations of existing structures like street lights and commercial building. Greenfield developments for innovation planning and implementation of establishments like smart grid, Level-2 and Level-3 charging stations. A centralized control is installed to monitor and regulate this ITS through an IoT network.