Abstract

The deployment of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) throughout the transportation system is expected to significantly shape the current structures and operating models. Infrastructure, vehicles and end-user handsets are becoming increasingly intelligent and instrumented with sensors and broadband connectivity, which in turn enables a wide range of smart mobility services. This evolution trend is also challenging the public sector to renew itself and create new policies, new ways to organize services and regulate the market. In relation to this evolution trend, the Ministry of Transport and Communications has launched the Traffic Lab development program the goal of which is to enable the creation of an ecosystem of smart mobility services, and which also provides a context for this study. In this study we use different modelling frameworks to analyse how the evolution towards an open ecosystem model for smart mobility services could occur in Finland. Two evolution paths in particular are described, the first being a more centralized path where centrally controlled public services are gradually liberalized, following possibly a similar evolutionary path what took place in the evolution of 1st and 2nd generation mobile communications. The second is a more decentralized path, where fragmented and isolated solutions are loosely coupled in a similar manner to that which occurred in the evolution of the Internet. In order for smart mobility services to reach their full potential, many changes are needed in current organizational structures and legislation. New collaboration models are needed between the public and private sectors and between existing sub-sectors of the transport system. While it remains uncertain how quickly these changes will eventually occur in full scale, it is evident that the upscaling of smart mobility solutions requires multiple points of intervention and is not likely to emerge by market forces alone.