In the mobility of the future we will no longer be car owners but users of technological and connected cities. Autonomous driving, artificial intelligence, vehicle sharing, apps with which to choose the type of car or on-board experience, with which to manage traffic and routes intelligently. The full realization of the Internet Of Things. Transportation will be a mix of electric cars charging other vehicles; of micromobility for short journeys and driverless vehicles for the transport of people and goods. All this changes the dynamics of networks and infrastructures, with a new idea of a motorway artery which is no longer a stretch of road that simply leads from one point to another point.
Osvaldo De Paolini interview Roberto Tomasi (To Autostrade per l’Italia). “Autostrade has made a quantum leap”, begins the deputy director of the newspaper, who adds: “It is a source of pride for our economy. One hundred years ago what is considered the first toll road in the world was born, the Milan-Varese. What remains of that message?”. “To imagine the future we must look to the past – says Tomasi – This is also the 60th anniversary of the Autostrada del Sole, inaugurated in 1964 by Aldo Moro. There were controversies over that highway and many did not understand the reason, the potential, of that highway. However, the economy of our country was born around those highway systems. Two thirds of the population does not live in large cities and will always be supplied by the use of cars. 90 percent)”.
Rail or road transport? For Tomasi there cannot be a balance because the percentages are too disproportionate. “Let’s imagine a revolutionized logistics. If we double the rail transport we still haven’t changed anything. It’s only efficient beyond four hundred kilometres. But it’s very difficult. If we look at how many years it took the infrastructural systems to develop, we see that they are at least a hundred years have passed. And how many resources would we need to redo the motorway system? And it would take fifty years.”
Tomasi continues: “The number of kilometers traveled is 74 million by light vehicles and 23 by heavy ones. This tells us that the network is a strategy for the country’s economy. Investing to preserve the value of the infrastructure is fundamental. In a perspective of 15/20, taking into account that there have been no investments in the past, we must modernize the network, which has margins to still be managed, and then strengthen some nodes which, in large metropolitan cities, are now saturated we can postpone these interventions because we are already behind the needs of the country’s system. We must then imagine reducing the number of vehicles traveling because the amounts we have foreseen will not be sufficient”.
De Paolini recalls that in the future there will be fewer vehicles, therefore less earnings for Autostrade: “Today the vehicle remains very still – says Tomasi – but the number of kilometers traveled will increase. With an effectiveness that we must improve, given that a large part of the network It’s now at saturation.” How do queues arise? “From two factors, the operating speed and the intensity of traffic. Sometimes all it takes is for a vehicle to slow down a lot to create large queues on a lane. Carrying out modernization work when the networks are so saturated is very difficult and is the reason why which we do them at night.”
Sustainability – states De Paolini – is used by all companies. But what does it really mean? “There are different levels of sustainability. Being effective in moving people and vehicles. If you have less congestion you are more effective. But there is also the effectiveness of the carrier. We did a study on mobility and our forecasts were much more negative than the Europe. The strategy to reach sustainability objectives is multiple. The use of biofuels will be important, at least to solve a third of the mobility problems 10% of a trip”. A game in which intelligent tires can make the difference: “We are talking to acquire that data. But we are already ahead. There are traveling systems that interpret different situations and develop, with artificial intelligence, specific work plans”.
Security is fundamental, however, recalls De Paolini, especially at a time when everything can be controlled remotely. “The events that can happen are different, as the problem that Microsoft had reminds us. The entire cyber security policy implemented protects our systems. We also simulate the loss of some of them to understand which ones are the activation ones to protect them. Stress tests are essential. We have advanced backup and control systems. Today Autostrade is working with the minister to implement alternative mechanisms so that the investment projection is not it weighs on public finances and is another fundamental element.”
Sometimes, however, underlines De Paolini i
lacories are blocked by the professionals of the no and those who are afraid to sign: “We have met both. It is the path of transparency with which the business is managed and how decisions are made that makes the difference”.