GTA in Motion sees cars as solution

Gerry Malloy

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Traffic congestion is the plague of urban and suburban life. But the only solution our politicos seem willing to recognize or consider is to pour more and more money into public transit.

While that approach may work for some, it is not a viable solution for the needs of many. Would people really choose to use their cars if there were a better way?

Recognizing that reality, are there not ways in which the car itself can help to solve the problem of traffic congestion – to help unlock the gridlock?

That is the thesis of the Canadian International Auto Show's `GTA in Motion' exhibit.

"Its premise is that smaller cars take up less space on the road," explains Beth Rhind, media director for the auto show, who organized the exhibit. "More space on the road means more cars can use it and you can move more people faster," she says.

To that end, the display, set against a spectacular 20-metre long backdrop of the Toronto skyline, is populated by a variety of both real micro-cars and design studies.

Actual cars on display include two Smart TwoFours, a Mitsubishi i-Car (not sold in North America – yet!), and two Toyota iReal concepts, which are so futuristic that they raise questions about what the definition of a car should be.

Looking not unlike a highly-sophisticated, motorized wheelchair, the iReal is an individual personal mobility device that could potentially be used on city streets, or in the PATH system, or driven right to your 40th-floor office.

Just imagine a fleet of iReals at the GO station, available to check out for your daily use around the city – to places public transit can't take you efficiently. Just insert your credit card and go.

Closer to realization – in fact, on the road in Quebec now – is the NEMO; a small electric delivery truck that could have a huge impact on downtown traffic flow if it were to replace all the big box vans double-parked in the streets.

The battery/electric-powered NEMO is built in St. Therese, Quebec, and it has achieved Canadian federal government certification for sale and use as a Low Speed Vehicle in designated areas.

There is more Canadian content in the display in the form of design drawings and scale models created by students of Humber College's automotive design program. According to Ken Cummings, dean of the design program, the students were given an assignment to specifically address the gridlock issue, and they responded creatively.

Other designs, from students of design schools around the world, illustrate different approaches to the same challenge and how they might be addressed in different cities.

Going a step further, Toyota contributed a display explaining the concept of ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems), which could combine with smaller cars to make a huge improvement in traffic flow.

Imagine, for example, that cars could electronically talk to each other, as well as to central traffic management sites via satellite, all without any driver input or action.

Your personal mobility vehicle might become part of an electronically-connected vehicle train, with cars just a metre apart, traveling as a unit in a dedicated highway lane under autonomous control. It's possible!

So is the concept of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication and control that could effectively prevent cars from running into each other.

It's true that cars and trucks combined with today's road and highway systems are the source of the traffic congestion problem.

But there is no reason why, given some creative thinking that goes beyond the status quo, they can't also be the source of the solution, as the GTA in Motion exhibit illustrates.

The GTA in Motion exhibit can be seen at the AutoShow on the 700 Level of

the Convention Centre's South Building.

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