The future of mobility

Cheat Sheet:

What are edge cities?

An edge city is a concentration of business, shopping and entertainment outside a traditional urban area in what had been recently been a residential suburb or semi-rural community.

How big are edge cities?

Joel Garreau , the writer of a book about edge cities defined the following rules, of what may called an city edge.

It must have more than 465.000 m2 of office space. A city edge is characterized by more job space than bedrooms.

How many people live in an Edge City?

A city edge has enough space to house 20.000 to 50.000 people.

How is the transportation to and in Edge Cities?

Edge cities are most of the time only accessible by automotive vehicles and lack of sidewalks.

What impact have edge cities on the transportation/environment/etc?

The edge cities lead towards large areas of office space that are accessible by car, which results into a larger CO2 emission which damages the environment. When building edge cities this has to be taken into consideration.

Will there be more edge cities in the future?

When a city population grows, edge cities can be created to supply citizens with work, housing and entertainment. Because of the growing Dutch population it’s unavoidable that new edge cities will be created.

TELEWORKING

How much and what kind of companies are using teleworking?

Nowadays a lot of firms use teleworking, when for a job no psychical attendance is required it is possible to telework. The availability of broadband internet nationwide encourages this trend.

How many people are working from home or another location then the main office?

This depends on the company itself and the business wherein it is active, an IT firm would have more teleworkers than a banking firm.

Are people bound to working places? (IT/hospitals/etc)

With the explosive growth of broadband internet connections people could work from everywhere, so if there is no physical attention required people could work from everywhere.

Where are they located/What size has the company/what sector are they in?

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What is the impact on traffic jams?

By adopting teleworking into the common business process, traffic jams could be reduced, people could work from home or leave later.

What is the impact on the environment?

Less cars, less traffic, means less CO2. If companies take the environment into consideration, this trend could help to reduce the CO2 emission, of course alternative measures have to be taken.

What is the impact of programs like skype and webbex on teleworking?

Instant messaging and VOIP technologies could encourage teleworking, people can talk to each other to create an more personal setting instead of email.

What are the cost/benefits for the employee?

   * No trafficjam frustration
   * Control your own time
   * No socal contact

What are the cost/benefits for the company?

   * Less control over employees
   * Reduction of lease cars and fuel.

Are companies or the government supporting this way of working? and Why/not?

What is the impact on the work that will be accomplished? do people work more/less when working from home for the same amount of money?

TECHNOLOGIES

What future technologies are being developed?

What are the current technologies being used?

What happens if the fuel burns out? Then what?

What about electric?

     Batteries? Life? Coverage? Charge time/stations? Costs? saving environment?

           acceptance?

     Hybride? Life? Coverage? Charge time/stations? Costs? saving environment?

           acceptance?

What about hydrogen?

     Life? Coverage? Fuel stations? Costs? saving environment? acceptance? 

GENERAL QUESTIONS

Who are traveling?

     Business people

     Students

     Older people

How do people travel?

Why do people travel?

Would public transportation still be available in 10 to 15 years?

How and how much does the government try to encourage the public transportation?

How and mow much do companies support public transportation?

How much cleaner is public transportation versus a car?

How many cars are there in the netherlands?

How many roads are there? Length?

How is the mobility of the future affected by the credit crisis?