Development of Smart Mobility Infrastructure in Saudi Arabia: A Benchmarking Approach

Abstract

Smart mobility systems offers solutions for traffic congestion, transport management, emergency, and road safety. However, the success of smart mobility lies in the availability of intelligent transportation infrastructure. This paper studied smart mobility systems in three Asia-Pacific countries (South Korea, Singapore, and Japan) to highlight the major strategies leading their successful journey to become smart cities for aspiring countries, such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), to emulate. A robust framework for evaluating smart mobility systems in the three countries and Saudi Arabia was developed based on the indicators derived from the smart mobility ecosystem and three major types of transport services (private, public, and emergency). Sixty indicators of smart mobility systems were identified through a rigorous search of the literature and other secondary sources. Robots, drones, IoT, 5G, hyperloop tunnels, and self-driving technologies formed part of the indicators in those countries. The study reveals that the three Asia-Pacific countries are moving head-to-head in terms of smart mobility development. Saudi Arabia can join these smarter countries through inclusive development, standardization, and policy-driven strategies with clear commitments to public, private, and research collaborations in the development of its smart mobility ecosystem. Moreover, cybersecurity must be taken seriously because most of the smart mobility systems use wireless and IoT technologies, which may be vulnerable to hacking, and thus impact system safety. In addition, the smart mobility system should include data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence in developing and monitoring the evaluation in terms of user experience and future adaptability.