SMART Urban Typology

Mobility patterns, technology adoption, and associated energy outcomes vary across settlement types, as acknowledged by the DOE in that ‘the ways connected, automated and shared vehicles are integrated in rural areas may differ substantially with how they are integrated into urban areas’. The range of projects conducted within the SMART Mobility initiative is broad, while the in-depth application of the Modeling Workflow process is, at present, limited to two metropolitan areas, Chicago and San Francisco. A key goal of our research will be to determine how findings from one location may be translated for implementation to another location. This will increase the value of the SMART Consortium research and modeling and enable research outcomes to become more meaningful to informing mobility strategies in other SMART locations. However, identifying how implementing or modeling of emerging mobility technologies in one city may play out in another is not simple; context with respect to multiple variables that define the settlement type is important.