Cities Have a Lot to Say

Brandon Branham, CTO and assistant city manager of Peachtree Corners and the Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners, says there will be different ways future smart cities talk. “One form will revolve around how data collected from end-point devices is consolidated to ‘say’ what is really happening inside a smart city,” Branham explains. “Up until this point, cities have deployed a vast array of smart devices, but we are just now seeing the outcomes of all these connected devices and that data. These individual devices all have a message to share, but how we use and analyze that mass amount of information to make transformational decisions is how we will ‘talk’ in future smart-city environments.”

Smart cities will also communicate with residents and businesses. “Communication to our residents and businesses is key in a healthy and sustainable smart city,” Branham says. “I believe we will see smart technology transform from communicating only to the city to directly communicating with the end user. For example, when smart cameras and Wi-Fi access points pick up large gatherings, instant messages will be distributed through city apps to residents to let them know about the gathering. This, in turn, will communicate to the traffic signals so they may adjust for the resulting influx of vehicles.”

Another key consideration, JonMichael says, is making sure future infrastructure talks with us and not just at us. “This dialogue will be determined by how we interact with everyone in the mobility system, disseminate information, and drive human behavior change at an individual level. As an industry, transportation has never had an opportunity to holistically affect human behavior at scale,” he explains. “TDM (travel-demand management) is the science and practice of implementing strategies of human behavior change to create more balance in the system and reduce morning and afternoon rush-hour demands—like carpooling, taking transit, or other non-drive-alone options. Integrating TDM with technology, such as IoT, public-sector edge computing, mobile technologies, connected/automated vehicles, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), and other AI (artificial intelligence) will allow travelers to have personalized services that meet their needs while also balancing the demands on the mobility system throughout the day. Such a system could help each of us be more spatially and temporally aware of our decisions and our impact on the mobility system.”

Facing Challenges for a Smart Future

Jane Macfarlane, executive director of smart cities at the University of California Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies, also provides a transportation-specific angle. “The integration of technology into city operations and policymaking is a key focus for many cities,” she says. “Cities are using data effectively to understand the impact on transportation and the overall health of their city. We are only just beginning to take advantage of the power of information and communication technologies.”

Source: Postscapes Smart City Infographics

With this opportunity comes challenges, such as the management of data. As data collection becomes easier and its potential becomes more known, the reality remains that most smart-city data is redundant and not very interesting. Data must be collected, stored, and distributed—not to mention analyzed—in order for it to be as useful as it could be. Macfarlane also points out that future cities will sense much more than they do today, and one challenge will be figuring out how to do this without revealing personal information.

“One of the biggest hurdles to overcome is how to use mobility data without revealing PII (personally identifiable information),” she explains. “As an emerging field, data science at scale, including AI and machine learning, is rapidly changing. The value chain that takes data from a heterogeneous collection of mobile devices to collective information is being addressed by both public and private organizations. There will be significant changes in the devices themselves and the large-scale data analytics necessary to manage the data.”

However, many challenges prevent the adoption of new technologies, especially into government and infrastructure agencies. Even so, Thomas says efforts that make smart-city projects more bankable, allowing private funds to extend the public purse will move the needle in the near future. “The significant gap in the triangle of project success—misalignment of ROI (return on investment) between buyers, funding, and solutions—is especially valid for smart-city solutions and technologies,” he adds. “Typically, the funding sources are not aligned to the buyers’ and citizens’ needs, and solution developers and innovators have difficulty in accessing both the funders and the buyers. These gaps are sometimes addressed by significant funding projects globally, such as the smart-city initiatives in China and India. While such national-level efforts have been lacking in the U.S., cities and regional jurisdictions are filling the gap through public-private partnerships, such as Connected DMV, covering the 24 regional governments of greater Washington D.C., and other innovative mechanisms to help close the project-success triangle.

Finally, local governments need to develop the ability to identify, procure, implement, and operate new solutions (to) age-old problems.”