Hamburg is showcasing the Mobility of the Future

The Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress is coming to Hamburg next week

The city of Hamburg will become the showcase example when it comes to intelligent traffic and smart logistics during the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) World Congress happening between 11 and 15 October.

The ITS World Congress is the most important event centred around the adoption of Smart Mobility, digitalisation and logistics through the sharing of good practices. The event is expected to host a crowd of 10,000 people, as well as 400 exhibitions and 200 programme sessions, examining the latest trends in the sector.

Autonomous, flexible, decentralised, digital

The Hanseatic City is home to a number of pioneering projects in terms of smart mobility. These include autonomous public transportation, drone medical deliveries, ride-sharing applications, autonomous driving lanes and urban air-traffic regulation.

One of the more exciting projects is a 5-metre-long autonomous driven minibus in HafenCity that travels a modest area of two kilometres with speeds up to 25 kilometres, however, it interacts with the dynamic traffic situation in the area.

The autonomous minibus,
Source: Authority for Transport and Mobility Turnaround

Another showcase project is called Medifly, which started in 2020. The project involves drones ferrying medication and samples between pharmacies, hospitals and test centres. The drones can bypass the busy streets of the city and greatly increase both efficiency and sustainability in medical logistics.

Furthermore, because of the increased air traffic in the city, in 2018, Hamburg codified the limits of the urban airspace and is working on developing a relevant regulatory framework governing the flow of drowns ad air taxis.

A similar project to the drone medicine deliveries has been proposed in rural Germany, aimed at tackling supply issues in small hospitals.

At the same time, the HVV Switch App takes ride sharing to the next level, because it includes cars, bikes, e-scooters, providing support to public transportation, as well as changing the single-person-in-a-car phenomenon.

Smart mobility in the Hanseatic City

The Hamburg Senate adopted an Intelligent Transport Strategy back in 2016 and this has given the city a significant legislative direction when it comes to iterating and modernising the mobility sector.

According to Anjes Tjarks, Hamburg's Senator for Transport and Mobility, the city is constantly striving for better air quality, less traffic and a better quality of life overall. He continued by explaining that urban mobility needs close collaboration between public and private institutions to foster creative solutions for the future.

Senator Tjarks was quoted in a press release, saying: “The ITS World Congress comes at exactly the right time. Hamburg is currently completing the mobility transition and is relying on intelligent concepts for sustainable and networked transport.“