Most cities have patterns of transport where daytime commuting
and business peaks are interchanged with nighttime goods
transport. Although we are most aware of daytime congestion and
pollution through transport, we should not forget that transport
at night also contributes to these problems -albeit on a lesser
scale. What is needed is environmentally sound means of
transport offering cheap, coordinated transport to all major
goods firms and stores. A smarter city would have either a
municipal goods transport system, or a ‘transport exchange’,
where goods suppliers bid for routes and cooperate with each
other in order to avoid high road-pricing tariffs. Receipt and
dispatch notifications would be sent and processed in real time
between automated warehouses, goods depots, city docks and
railheads. Smart choreography would ensure a minimum of
congestion, a minimum of inefficiency and minimum pollution.
Challenges for this model would be -like so many others-
interoperability of systems (RFID, barcode standards,