The electric vehicle revolution has arrived—Tesla’s Model 3 was Europe’s best-selling car in September. That’s the same month iconic British automobile company Rolls-Royce announced that it will shift to an all-electric line-up by 2030, joining Jaguar, Bentley, Cadillac, and others that have committed to electrification.

For an industry that once seemed to many like a fantasy, it’s an exciting moment for EV evangelists. Real change is on the near horizon, but the journey will demand curated sales strategies, made possible by insights born of location intelligence.

Given the undeniable momentum, buyers might expect electric vehicle (EV) sales to sweep the globe. But in reality, it’s less likely to be a tsunami of change than a staggered evolution. Car buyers in some neighbourhoods and regions will be first-movers, while others will be much slower to adapt. Retailers and brands will need to calibrate supply not just to demand but to local infrastructure that supports charging and repairs.

To date, US EV sales have been concentrated mainly on the coasts, often in higher-income neighbourhoods. As that picture develops, car sellers will need to customise EV offerings to specific markets and regions, plan production and distribution based on those market insights, and effectively advertise the new breed of low- or zero-emission vehicles to a complex and multifaceted group of drivers.

A Collaborative Approach to Market Change, EV Sales

Spatial business intelligence, also known as location intelligence, will be a vital tool to help EV leaders forge this path. Retailers can use geographic information system (GIS) technology to analyse and contextualise multiple forms of relevant data on a map—from income, age ranges, and sustainability attitudes, to areas of higher EV adoption and electric grid capacity. The patterns and connections that emerge from this geographic approach help decision-makers understand the complexions of markets, define target areas, and forecast EV sales.

Managing the EV transition profitably will require multiple stakeholders to work in tandem. GIS supports this collaborative approach, serving as a common visual operating picture for multiple parties.

For example, a spike in EV sales will be problematic if the charging infrastructure isn’t in place to keep cars running. That’s why an Los Angeles-based team at the design consultancy Arup developed a web-based site-suitability tool for EV charging stations. Named Charge4All, the GIS-based tool enables businesses, utilities, government offices, and communities to share input on the most suitable locations for EV chargers. Past plug installation efforts in Southern California missed important variables when major stakeholders weren’t invited to the table. That’s why GIS, which can contextualise data from multiple software platforms, will be integral to the EV effort.

Location Distinction with a Difference

Since widespread EV sales will require buy-in from multiple sectors of society, the Charge4All team ensured that lower-income and disadvantaged neighbourhoods were included in the suitability analysis. That spatial awareness illuminated key links between demographic information and EV use, underscoring the importance of analysing granular consumer data through a location lens.

For instance, the GIS lead on the Charge4All project found that the upscale, beachfront neighbourhoods of Santa Monica boasted high levels of EV adoption and usage. On the other hand, downtown LA showed more lower-income areas, lower rates of vehicle ownership, and less EV engagement.

This geographic differentiation holds true on a national level as well. According to data from the International Council on Clean Transportation, California accounted for slightly less than half of all EV sales in the country in 2019. The West Coast in general is a stronghold of EV use, with a pattern of high EV registration stretching from Seattle down to Phoenix. The Northeast and Rust Belt are also home to swathes of EV ownership. However, vast stretches of the South and the inland Northwest show virtually zero EV engagement.

Finding the EV Buyer Profile and Investing in the Right Markets

Understanding how geographic adoption trends shape the potential for EV sales will be key to the success of any retail strategy—including how to distribute cars to existing dealerships, where to invest in new ones, where to build charging infrastructure, and how to service customers’ vehicles. The approach in cities, where parking is scarce and residents cluster in apartment buildings, will differ from plans in the more dispersed suburbs.

To see the full picture, brand leaders need to synthesise data such as EV registration, inventory numbers, driving patterns, consumer demographics—even information about clean energy regulations. For example, some states offer incentives for zero-emission vehicles that can attract both buyers and sellers and provide clues on which markets to prioritise.

In states without EV incentives, higher-cost EVs might not sell as well. That fact alone creates a reason to marshal useful data and customise price points and products to the most EV-friendly customers in a market.

Columbus, Ohio, which has made a push to facilitate the shift to electric vehicles, found that those most likely to buys EVs tended to share certain demographic traits. Individuals with a bachelor’s or graduate degree who were between 30 and 44 years of age with an annual salary of $100,000 or more were ahead of the curve in making the jump to electric.

That’s the type of demographic and psychographic insight that GIS technology specialises in. Executives can view maps and dashboards of such insight to identify high-potential areas and facilitate collaboration with marketing and sales teams.

Location intelligence can help EV marketers see which types of customers live or shop within a 15-minute drive time of a store, as well as the sales performance of competitors in the area. The same capability can allow advertisers to target online ads to a particular slice of a market, like those who support green initiatives.

An Exciting Moment for EV Evangelists

When business analysts place all relevant data in front of decision-makers on a smart map, the unified picture catalyses creative solutions. For instance, workplaces that offer EV charging stations can be the deciding factor for buyers who are on the fence about an EV. A dealer could create a map of nearby office parks to scout potential partnerships that drive higher adoption rates. They could also share maps of EV chargers with potential customers, customised to their driving lifestyle.

Such targeted, location-based insights translate into higher EV sales—and less time and money wasted on uninterested customers.

This article originally appeared in the global edition of WhereNext.

As the urgency to fight climate change intensifies, the United States is trying to bolster its efforts while also shoring up the nation’s aging infrastructure. President Joe Biden has pledged to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure improvements, with an emphasis on projects that promote an emissions-free future.

That could mean a push for better rail service, which has a lower carbon footprint than car-based transportation. Biden, a vocal supporter of Amtrak, has touted the idea of launching America’s “second great railroad revolution.” US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg says he wants the country to become a world leader in high-speed rail.

An emphasis on location intelligence could help engineering and construction companies interested in joining the effort—as well as retailers, commercial real estate firms, and other businesses that might find new customers due to this once-in-a-generation shift.

Quickening the Pace in the Northeast

Although the US has a long way to go to catch up with countries like Japan and France, interest in high-speed rail is growing. For now, the country’s only high-speed rail project under construction is a link between Los Angeles and San Francisco, though other regional plans are being discussed, including routes in Texas, Florida, Nevada, and the Pacific Northwest. The most ambitious possibility is North Atlantic Rail (NAR), a $105 billion plan that would involve eight states. NAR could become the first megaproject of the Biden era, according to a recent Bloomberg CityLab article.

NAR is an attempt to expand and upgrade service in New England and New York, largely through modernization and electrification projects that would strengthen regional systems while extending service to less densely populated areas. It would include a high-speed trunk line transporting passengers between Boston and New York City in 100 minutes, 2 hours quicker than Amtrak’s current Acela service.

If the president’s infrastructure push helps make North Atlantic Rail a reality, it will present a formidable engineering challenge. The tunnel construction projects alone resemble the mammoth earth-moving and water-diverting efforts of an earlier American era. NAR would require new train tunnels under Boston’s infamous Big Dig subterranean highways; near Hartford, Connecticut, and in environmentally sensitive areas of the state’s eastern region; under a 16-mile section of Long Island Sound that would create the longest underwater tunnel in North America; and throughout New York City, including under the East River.

Companies hoping to work on these projects will need to keep them on budget and on time while managing the interplay between the built and natural environments without damaging existing physical assets. To accomplish that, they’ll need high-fidelity location intelligence. As Harvard researcher Doug Richardson explained in 2018 when he called attention to a federal report advocating work on infrastructure improvements:

Companies involved will need accurate and reliable spatial data . . . to ensure that scarce dollars are spent in the most efficient and effective ways possible. Knowing where infrastructure is located, how different pieces relate to one another, and where the critical dependencies lie are required first steps for making good financial decisions.

Engineering and construction firms have realized the benefits of location intelligence by using geographic information system (GIS) software and related technology. In fact, they have been among the most innovative users of the software, often managing projects with the help of a GIS-based digital twin.

A Digital Twin to Keep Rail Projects on Track

Planners of North Atlantic Rail have been influenced by the UK’s Northern Powerhouse initiative, a program to rejuvenate industrial cities in the North of England. A major pillar of that initiative is rail improvements, including HS2, a high-speed connection between Birmingham and London.

The planning and construction of HS2 are handled by a partnership of firms headquartered in Britain, Sweden, and Austria. The joint venture makes extensive use of GIS and building information modelling (BIM) technology.

GIS allows the companies to visualize critical details about networks above and below ground, and how key elements interact. GIS also lends geographic context to the buildings and structures managed in BIM, revealing their integration with the natural environment. The combined view is a project’s 3D digital twin.

As Harvard’s Richardson noted in 2018:

Employing technologies such as intelligent, real-time GIS and GPS maps to prioritize, plan, and execute new infrastructure projects can help optimize public and private infrastructure investments and avoid inefficiency and waste.

In addition to speeding up planning and enhancing accuracy, the 3D environment improves communication by providing a common reference document—accessible by engineers in the office and workers on-site. “It’s like a shop window for everyone on the project, to see what is available to them, and to give them easy and intuitive access,” a GIS manager on the HS2 project explained in 2019. “Giving everyone on the project access to the 3D models ultimately makes everything a lot more efficient, and saves time and money.”

Leading-edge firms are now adding the dimensions of time and budget to digital twins, using GIS and BIM to track not just how the physical project evolves but whether it honours deadlines and spending targets.

Regional Transportation to Spark Regional Transformation

NAR is being pitched as a project that will spark needed changes in American society. It would help the US lighten its carbon footprint and mitigate future climate-related damage, proponents say, while providing inland transportation routes as an alternative to existing coastal corridors that could be imperiled by sea level rise.

Project planners also see a social equity angle to NAR. As large cities like New York and Boston have become more costly, the resultant housing crunch has pushed lower-income and middle-class workers to distant suburbs.

By expanding travel options throughout the region, NAR’s backers argue that families will gain more flexibility regarding where to live. For instance, a family could live on the NAR network, with two earners travelling in different directions to work, rather than being forced to choose a single metro area that may not offer ideal employment options.

This could have a profound effect on the regional economy and beyond—especially if North Atlantic Rail paves the way for other regional high-speed transit networks. For example, if NAR’s boosters are correct that businesses in the region could expand their trade areas as travel times decrease and more customers can reach them, it could change the calculus for retailers, commercial real estate brokers, and service firms planning locations and service territories.

Businesses can get a jump on these decisions by using GIS to visualize where changes are likely to occur. Combining demographic data with their CRM data, business planners can analyse how customer activity might change in areas newly served by NAR and other rail networks.

A Location-Smart Approach to Change  

Large businesses in the Northeast are already struggling to understand how climate change will affect where their workforces will want to live—especially as NAR cities like Boston attempt to revitalize areas that will be impacted by climate-related issues in the coming years.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the switch to remote work have further complicated these decisions. Will tomorrow’s business leaders continue to embrace work-from-home practices or bring employees back to the office? Could NAR’s decentralization of the region provide companies and workers more flexibility—making it realistic to live farther away from the office while spending part of the workweek in the office?

Either way, as the climate crisis increases the need for large-scale solutions, projects like NAR are likely to set off changes in how people live, shop, and work. Location intelligence will help engineering and construction companies plan these major transportation projects—while helping retail and service businesses anticipate and accommodate the new customers those projects will create.

This article was originally published on the global edition of Wherenext

Twice in the last decade Londoners have seen dramatic shifts in the way they interact with streets and transit. The first was in 2012 when the Olympic Games temporarily brought 600,000 new riders to London’s buses and trains. The second was in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic emptied streets, buses, and rail cars. In both instances, planners at Transport for London (TfL) looked for near real-time understanding of traffic patterns, demand, and incidents using situational awareness from a geographic information system (GIS).

In response to the pandemic, TfL had to reconsider how mobility can enhance public safety. During the Olympics, it had to move people around to many venues, while maintaining mobility for residents and businesses. New technologies implemented in 2012 would prove valuable once again in 2020.

Olympics preparation included standing up the Games Playbook, a comprehensive traffic management tool that served as a central source to visualize mobility. Reflecting on lessons from the games, Michelle Dix, director of planning for TfL at the time, told the BBC: “That’s the biggest legacy in terms of behavioural change. We proved that through messaging and communications and telling people what’s going on, telling them about alternatives so they can make informed choices, we proved that you can manage these big events.”

GIS technology has given TfL a chance to understand how street space can be reimagined for London’s residents—whether the challenge is to use the space efficiently for more people or use it safely for fewer.

The Olympics effort was deemed a success, with 90 percent of journeys completed on time despite a record number of riders. The London Tube alone had 4.5 million riders on one day of the games compared to the typical 3 million, and 30 percent more than usual over the course of the event.

In addition to catalysing the use of powerful traffic awareness technology, the Olympics kicked off a series of citywide initiatives to make healthy, sustainable travel options more accessible. Boris Johnson, then-mayor of London, pledged to maintain key elements of the walking, cycling, and public transit infrastructure created to support the games.

Now, public health is a top priority of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s 2018 Transport Strategy with the goal of 80 percent of trips around the city to be taken via public transit, on foot, or by bicycle by 2041.

TfL’s GIS services have been instrumental in these efforts.

“After the Olympics, the need for geospatial understanding still remained very much at the forefront,” said Jaymie Croucher, TfL’s GIS lead for Network Management, Surface Transport.

TfL invested in its GIS in 2014, delivering GIS as a service, and creating the Surface Playbook. “We’re six years in to a 10-year plan, and we continue to grow to support internal and external stakeholders—all fed through the single source of truth for data,” Croucher said.

Creating Space for Safe Streets during COVID-19

Since the emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020, TfL has faced a new challenge in support of social distancing and implementing London’s goals for active, sustainable transportation.

Using maps of city streets created in the Surface Playbook, TfL used funding from the Government’s Active Travel Fund to make more space for people to walk and cycle safely during the pandemic. The program’s intention is, “to support the members of the public to have more confidence to walk and cycle,” Croucher said. “It’s focused on supporting sustainable modes and increasing the ability to enact social distancing in transit, whilst limiting the impact of other modes.”

The program encompasses several connected projects, including widening walkways, creating temporary bicycle lanes, and restricting car traffic near schools and in designated low traffic neighbourhoods. Projects have been implemented citywide on the 360 miles of roads managed by TfL as well as locally through funding provided to London’s boroughs.

As all the projects took shape, Surface Playbook was utilized as the focal point to giving clear situational awareness across the business as schemes were proposed, planned and delivered. “There’s a limited amount of space in London, and our team had to act quickly and use it wisely,” Croucher said. “We needed to look at social distancing and find out where it was going to be the biggest issue.”

The team’s principal data manager and GIS specialists (Christophe Delatreche, Timothy Fegan and Christina Kimbrough) along with the data scientists of Operational Analysis, created products identifying at-risk and high-demand areas of pavement to give planners a clear indication of priority areas. In particular, the maps highlighted five factors: areas with current high demand for cyclists and pedestrians; essential services like grocery stores; population density; median household income (low income typically correlates to higher foot traffic); and high-traffic public transportation hubs. As a whole, the maps conveyed a clear picture of where streets were likely to be crowded—and where more space was needed most for safe and socially distant activity.

The resultant risk assessments could then be layered over data like walkway widths to create priority scores. Top priority was given to streets and neighbourhoods with both the need and capacity for wider walkways. “This enabled the business to have a clear understanding of precedence enabling clearer decision making prior to accepting schemes.” Croucher said.

Similar processes informed additional schemes like added space for social distancing at heavily trafficked bus stops and establishing 24/7 bus lanes on priority routes.

TfL also coordinated with the GIS team within City Planning, led by Vicki Gilham, to expedite existing plans for cycle lanes created under London’s broader transport strategy. Prior to the pandemic, Croucher said, “Where previously we had seen cycling programs paused pre-pandemic, we’re now seeing those accelerated in areas where there’s an increased need for cycling infrastructure.”

Mapping the Future of London Transit

While the efforts align with London’s long-term goals, many schemes introduced during the pandemic are currently considered temporary. TfL is working to report on the success of each scheme to gauge whether the changes will make sense for the city after the pandemic—much like the process for maintaining Olympics infrastructure following the games.

“Before we can decide whether a feature becomes permanent or not, we need to understand what the impact is,” Croucher said. “If you close a street, for example, that is going to cause traffic to develop elsewhere. The schemes need to be well monitored to ensure that they’re effective in the long run for all modes of transport.”

Onsite surveys have been a key component of the monitoring process. Surveyors in the field across the Greater London area capture data about use, safety, and needed improvements. Survey feedback populates a live, online GIS dashboard, providing real-time visibility for city management and informing next steps.

To that end, such shareable reporting tools have supported TfL during the pandemic. With many schemes also being carried out by boroughs, the team created a GIS database to centralize program information.

“Compiling it all within a single portal, we’ve allowed everyone to have transparency over the safety of each scheme and compliance of users,” Croucher said. The portal delivers situational awareness for TfL and city leadership to see how each scheme performs and interacts.

Changing a city’s transportation habits ultimately requires a strategic rebalancing of the way residents use city streets. Recreation, public transit, transportation of people and goods—each claims a space on city streets. Giving more space to one will necessarily take space from another.

Maps provide a powerful visual understanding of the space available and a strong platform to plan, prioritize, and improve.

“The benefits of the way we collect and disseminate this information are reaped well beyond TfL to provide clarity to both external partners and ultimately the public,” Croucher said. “Understanding the spatial relationships that elements have provides a clear picture for decision makers that you won’t necessarily see by looking through more traditional means such as a database or a spreadsheet.”

Learn more about how GIS is used to make transportation more efficient.

This article was originally published in the the Esri Blog

In November, as soon as Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca announced promising results from their respective COVID-19 vaccine trials, the public’s attention began to shift from research and development toward distribution.

Urgent and worldwide demand for vaccination creates an immense logistics challenge. Distributors and health-care providers will need to navigate the vaccine cold chain, a specialized, temperature-controlled supply chain hampered by inefficiencies and limited infrastructure.

As leaders work quickly to optimise and reinforce the cold chain, many will turn to the location technology they’ve used to optimize supply chain management for decades.

Minimizing Risk in Real Time

Improving a supply chain often starts with operational visibility. IoT sensors and real-time data analysis tools can be key tools for logistics companies to collect data throughout a product’s manufacturing and distribution. Adding location technology, like a geographic information system (GIS), creates valuable tracking and visualization capabilities.

In the case of the vaccine cold chain, the combination of IoT and GIS could be key to preventing losses. Vaccines degrade quickly and must be kept within a specific temperature range—public health guidelines note that even minor deviations can render a vaccine ineffective.

Approximately 25 percent of shipped vaccines are compromised due to poor temperature management, according to a 2019 report from the International Air Transport Association. The report estimates that temperature-related pharmaceutical damage costs the health-care industry in excess of $34 billion each year.

For the people and economies depending on a COVID-19 prophylaxis, ineffective cold chain management will be especially costly.

These are precisely the kinds of risks that can be minimized with location intelligence and greater supply chain visibility. The concept has been applied to reducing perishable food waste by using IoT sensors to track temperature shifts during shipment. Using smart maps to track a shipment’s location and temperature adds vital environmental context and transparency in a segment of the supply chain where the risk of disruption is high.

Businesses that monitor live data on a GIS-based map are able to react in real time, as FedEx does to manage its fleet of planes. For vaccine distributors, such situational awareness can expose flaws in the cold chain and help prevent spoilage. Supply chain managers might reroute a delivery if the power is out at its planned destination, or alert transporters if temperature inconsistencies are detected in transit.

For many products—and especially the COVID-19 vaccine—the ultimate goal is faster delivery with fewer losses. Location-based visibility will help cold chain distributors achieve this level of efficiency as the world inches closer to the pandemic’s end.

Finding and Filling Critical Gaps

Efficiency is one attribute of successful vaccine distribution; equity is another. The COVID-19 virus can’t be stopped unless the vaccine is broadly administered. But the cold chain, with its specialized equipment and processes, is inherently an inequitable system. It favours high-resource communities with ample transportation options, a consistent power supply, and a trained workforce. Places and populations that lack these amenities must be identified, and steps must be taken to ensure vaccine accessibility—tasks more easily accomplished with smart maps that highlight coverage gaps.