Audi Sommerville Union Square
Boston
MIC-HUB collaborated with the Audi team and Urban Standards to investigate the impacts that the most innovative research carried out by the German car manufacturer could have on consolidated urban contexts.
Union Square, Somerville’s oldest commercial district in the Greater Boston area, lost its identity of public space and became a sequence of congested intersections at the expense of urban quality. These conditions, plus the innovative and efficient context in data management and the young and diverse population, created an ideal context for the research.
Location
Boston
Client
Audi
Main expertise
Innovative & digital mobility
PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
- Innovative & digital mobility
- Car-to-X technologies
- V2X communication
Project gallery
Our contribution
MIC-HUB developed two pilot projects focused on autonomous driving and V2X communication, i.e. the ability of vehicles to communicate with surrounding infrastructures, creating a continuous and silent dialogue between the car and urban elements.
MIC-HUB, along with the Audi team and the municipality, is planning ahead to alleviate the current traffic congestion and contain the traffic that the area will attract in the future.
Audi technologies, the Traffic Light Information Online and Car-to-X technologies will help decrease congestion by using communication between smart infrastructure and cars to generate smoother traffic flows.
The upgrade of traffic light technologies will not only improve circulation, it will subsequently lower emissions and may even allow a subsequent optimization of the road space in terms of lane and junction geometries.
In addition, with the introduction of piloted parking facilities, it will be possible to move garages to strategic locations, which will also lead to a significant reduction in search traffic.
