The Leader

London 2050: your ‘digital twin’ to keep Tube moving

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Episode notes

This week’s been a tale of woe for Londoners trying to go about our daily business - those Tube strikes left more people cramming on buses, trying our best to keep calm and carry on. 

As the summers temperatures rise, there’s more industrial action on the horizon - but how about the future?

In 2050, the population’s is predicted to have risen by well over a million people. 

So how will the road and TfL’s Tube and rail networks cope, and how is planning for freak events, such as pandemics, undertaken?

It’s not all flying taxis - although that could be part of the solution.

The answer begins with your “digital twin” making up a “synthetic population” of Londoners zipping around a computer doing virtual tasks and errands - just like humans would. 

The Leader’s joined by Dr Aruna Sivakumar, a reader in consumer demand modelling and urban systems at Imperial College London’s Centre for Transport Studies.

Dr Sivakumar’s also director of the Urban Systems Lab, and is a research expert on smart cities of the future.

We break down why “microsimulation” mapping is critical to stop the capital grinding to a halt in the future, discuss grid demand from electric vehicles and flying taxis.

You can hear us discuss the controversial per-mile charging and whether the capital’s olde worlde streets are fit for purpose in the second half of the 21st Century.

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