With the fast growth of the population in Texas, motivated by the economic health of the state compared to other states, we need to start thinking that the planned infrastructure and transportation strategy could become obsolete faster than we think.  Every day we see many new cars with tags from other states.   Many people are relocating to Texas mayor cities, more drivers and more vehicles to contribute to the already congested traffic and the high contamination levels.

As part of their Smart Planet Campaign IBM launched a campaign called Smarter Transportation, where they work in collaboration with the public sector on improving the transportation infrastructure.

I. China, where they will partner with Guangzhou Metro Corporation (GZ Metro) to improve the City's rapid transit system serving more than two million passengers a day. IBM will help GZ Metro manage all of its IT and physical assets including four commuter lines, 60 stations and more than 116 kilometers of track.

II. The Netherlands, in partnership with the Netherlands Railways using the IBM ILOG OPL-CPLEX(R) as a key component of its custom Rolling Stock Allocation Application (ROSA), Netherlands Railways has been able to improve its operating efficiency by as much as six percent, netting the railway a cost savings of over EUR 20 million annually. Netherlands Railways manages more than 4,800 trains per day in the Netherlands through a 2,100 kilometers long network of 279 stations. Using IBM ILOG CPLEX, ROSA uses departure and arrival times, as well as passenger traffic forecasts, to assign trains and passenger cars to timetable services more accurately. The system automatically creates a schedule faster, with fewer mistakes than manually built ones.

Smarter Austin?

Capital Metro has a fleet of more than 400 buses.  Over half of these buses will need to be replaced in the next few years.   In Texas IBM is already working with the University of Texas, Austin in researching for solutions on water purification.  

The Austin Capital Metro System have allocated part of the Economic Stimulus funds, $9.5 million, on the MetroRail, that was supposed to be launched at the end of march and now is postponed indefinitely because of violations on safety and training issues as per notification they received from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).

Smarter Dallas?

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit authority (DART) light rail system comprises 48.6 miles (78.2 km) between its two lines — the Red Line and the Blue Line, becoming the first light rail system of Texas.

Smarter Houston?

In the election of 2001 voter approved the first Metro Rail line for Houston.   The operation started with the "Red Line" route, covering 7.5 mile-long route runs from the Reliant Center, through the Medical Center, the Museum District and to downtown.  It’s estimated that the Metro Rail could carry around 400 passengers per trip.  It is estimated that the Rail displaces more than 1,000 bus trips.  The weekday readership is 39,500 passengers.

METRO light rail comes approximately sixty years after the previous streetcar system was shut down, which left Houston as the largest city in the United States without a rail system (Source: Wikipedia).

In a city where waiting on the traffic creates a great deal of frustration and wasted time in a rushing congested area the Metro Rail is just a very small ant in a gigantic park and furthermore it doesn’t cover a significant territorial space.  Besides the Red Line, four other lines arte to be complete by the 2012.

Mass transportations systems should be designed to efficiently reduce traffic in heavily congested areas.  For example a Rail System that would go from Houston Downtown to the Woodlands could easily alleviate traffic congestion on I-45, the same would apply to Sugarland, Kingwood, Katy etc.

Let's think as IBM, let’s think smarter!