Definition: What is a smart city?
A smart city is a city that implements technology in a way to better improve efficiency by collecting data to allow the city to make better informed decisions and use of resources. This can include several different things:
- Sensors to inform drivers on road conditions, live traffic patterns, and other information to allow them to more efficiently commute around town and reduce overall carbon emissions.
- Information related public transit to allow it to more efficiently move through a crowded city by changing traffic lights to improve travel time.
- Improved infrastructure and legislation to benefit alternative modes of transportation.
- Implementation of AI systems to better analyze all the incoming data and make the most optimized decisions.
My Smart City Topic: Smart Streets and Smart Mode Choices
My topic is focused on the development of solutions for transportation in a city. Smart streets refers to the implementation of an IoT, or smart hub, to allow us to collect useful statistics related to road conditions and traffic patterns to allow a city to make more informed decisions related to the use of city resources, and inform drivers of these same things to allow them to make more efficient commutes.
Smart modes choices refers to the alternative modes of transportation other than traditional single person vehicles. This could include public transit, large bike paths, self-driving vehicles, and electric vehicles. All of these modes of transportation when combined with the correct infrastructure and the previously outlined smart hub IoT, could significantly improve a cities efficiency.
Smarter transportation can also be focused around the implementation of AI systems that are capable of interpreting the large amount of data that is coming in. This allows for some of the most efficient decisions made from these large sets of data. Further down we will be highlighting 3 different case studies and how we different cities have chosen to implement different smart technologies into cities.
Smarter transportation can also be focused around the implementation of AI systems that are capable of interpreting the large amount of data that is coming in. This allows for some of the most efficient decisions made from these large sets of data. Further down we will be highlighting 3 different case studies and how we different cities have chosen to implement different smart technologies into cities.
Case Study Reflections:
Case 1:Hangzhou - City Brain AI
Hangzhou, is a city in China that has launched it's "City Brain" project, with the goal being to make it one of the most data responsive cities in the world. The way it works is though the implementation of AI to manage traffic signals at 128 intersections and over 1,000 roads simultaneously to more efficiently move traffic through the city, and expedite emergency vehicles and emergency vehicle response. This hub processes everything from road conditions, to isolated vehicle collisions. This City Brain has significantly reduced emergency and commuter response time by almost half. Not only does it monitor vehicular traffic, but it also monitors pedestrian traffic to allow for the best possible traffic patterns.
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| Hangzhou's City Brain (Image From:https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/15/tech/alibaba-city-brain-hangzhou/index.html) |
By no surprise, this AI has been implemented by none other than the consumer e-commerce logistics giant, Alibaba, and for those who don't know what Alibaba is, it's very similar to Amazon and has a large market share of the Chinese market. Alibaba already deals with large amounts of logistic management as an e-commerce company, but now has taken it a step further with their implementation of the City Brain AI. This is an extreme example of implementation of an IoT hub to improve efficiency, but isn't that far of a cry from where a lot of major cities might be within the next 10-20 years. We are only at the very beginning of what a smart city can look like, and there is much more that a city will be able to do and collect data on in the future. It's projected by 2025, that we will be able to improve efficiency by another 15-20% in these cities that are already at the cutting edge of efficiency as a smart city.
There are definitely a lot of benefits ranging from reduced commuter time, to improved emergency vehicle response time, and lower carbon emissions by reducing idling. However, with all these benefits there comes a lot of trade offs especially related to privacy. Other companies have already started to develop tools and applications to allow police bureaus to monitor, identify live faces, car license plates, and crowd movement. This can prove problematic for areas where individual freedom and expression may already be at risk, by automating a large part of the process that was formerly handled manually. I think that a smart city should implement these solutions only with the intent of improving everyone's quality of life, and not be used in an oppressive or big brother type of way as I believe that we enter into an area that could potentially oppress personal freedom. However, governments and other groups implementing these solutions hope that people understand the benefit of improved transit though monitoring/data collection and ultimately don't mind trading off a level of personal privacy for improved day to day life.
I think this case is a very good example of what individual companies, such as Amazon and other tech giants, could do for cities across the world. I think a large part of it comes down to what we as citizens of these cities are willing to sacrifice to achieve this improved efficiency. This also raises a lot of questions related to if we will need to create preemptive legislation to address these privacy issues that are right over the horizon, because it's often harder to pull back personal privacy than protect it from the start. Just look at Facebook, they started with very lenient data collection and analytics and it has taken months/years to reverse and step back to further improve it's users privacy and data protection. You don't know what you got till it't gone or infringed on, so airing on the side of protecting individual rights is always important when implementing new and potentially compromising technology.
Additionally, there have been other companies that have attempted to control vehicles and vehicle traffic, although not on the scale of Alibaba's City Brain. In 2016 IBM decided to launch Olli, a self driving electric-powered vehicle capable of carrying up to 12 people. This was a very small launch in 1 city, that eventually expanded to 3. This just furthers the thought that we can leverage these high level AIs to control our traffic patterns and even individual cars better than we can. This is pretty promising as AI technology is getting better and better as it get developed by private companies, and the future looks like it may come to private contracting to help establish city infrastructure based on individual needs. This does pose problems related to proprietary technology being implemented in different cities and multiple cities not being compatible with their individual proprietary technologies. We already see this today, with each city having their own proprietary public transit payment systems that aren't compatible with other cities. Standardizing transit and technology between several different cities would be a huge task, and would probably need national legislation so that cities are compatible.
I think this case is a very good example of what individual companies, such as Amazon and other tech giants, could do for cities across the world. I think a large part of it comes down to what we as citizens of these cities are willing to sacrifice to achieve this improved efficiency. This also raises a lot of questions related to if we will need to create preemptive legislation to address these privacy issues that are right over the horizon, because it's often harder to pull back personal privacy than protect it from the start. Just look at Facebook, they started with very lenient data collection and analytics and it has taken months/years to reverse and step back to further improve it's users privacy and data protection. You don't know what you got till it't gone or infringed on, so airing on the side of protecting individual rights is always important when implementing new and potentially compromising technology.
Additionally, there have been other companies that have attempted to control vehicles and vehicle traffic, although not on the scale of Alibaba's City Brain. In 2016 IBM decided to launch Olli, a self driving electric-powered vehicle capable of carrying up to 12 people. This was a very small launch in 1 city, that eventually expanded to 3. This just furthers the thought that we can leverage these high level AIs to control our traffic patterns and even individual cars better than we can. This is pretty promising as AI technology is getting better and better as it get developed by private companies, and the future looks like it may come to private contracting to help establish city infrastructure based on individual needs. This does pose problems related to proprietary technology being implemented in different cities and multiple cities not being compatible with their individual proprietary technologies. We already see this today, with each city having their own proprietary public transit payment systems that aren't compatible with other cities. Standardizing transit and technology between several different cities would be a huge task, and would probably need national legislation so that cities are compatible.
Articles:
https://singularityhub.com/2019/03/08/the-smart-cities-of-the-future-are-already-taking-off/
Case 2:Barcelona - XALOC
XALOC is a smart city solution in Barcelona designed to reduce the time that it takes people to find parking spaces by 5-7 minutes. This is done by implementing sensors to detect which spaces are occupied and which spaces are open and directing cars to these spaces accordingly. This while not as impressive as the previously mentioned City Brain, is a great example of how a city can make quick improvements to it's city with minimal changes of infrastructure and a relatively low cost of implementation. You could implement this in any existing city without too much trouble and is a excellent solution to a very common problem. I think that one of the biggest issues with implementing IoT hubs in a city is being able to implement it into existing infrastructure without having to make too many changes which would significantly drive up cost.
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| XALOC Designers (Image From:https://www.uab.cat/web/latest-news/news-detail/new-system-helps-locate-car-park-spaces-1096476786473.html?noticiaid=1278568901108) |
These sensors that are used to detect open/occupied parking spaces have been cleverly designed to resist common issues such as:
- Vandalism
- Weather
- Cleaning
Making these sensors resilient to common issues is fundamental to their design, cost of maintenance, and cost of repair. This is important as maintenance and replacement will be some of the major driving costs of the system after it has been initially implemented. This is a pretty good thought to have especially if your sensors need to be accessible by someone without a ladder or other tools.
This solution not only reduces the time spent idling around a busy area trying to find a parking space, but it also guarantees that the existing parking infrastructure is used to it's fullest potential, by making sure that every available spot is actually being used, and instead of having people route to a full parking area or having parking lot vultures roaming a parking lot till a spot opens, it would redirect the traffic to new areas that have open spaces to park in. This not only saves time for the driver looking for a spot, it reduces carbon emissions, and overall traffic in an area by expediting the process of getting cars off the road.
Even though this is a relatively small topic that could be quickly summed up, I think it lays a lot of ground work of how simple a solution can be yet how much of an impact it may have on a city. Considering the environment that you will be placing your sensors in is important, cause they can only collect useful data for as long as they are I think a large issue facing cities with implementation of IoT hubs is the initial cost and the need to update existing infrastructure to implement these solutions. This kind of turns that all on its head, and shows that with creativity and planning you can create a elegant solution to a common problem with minimal costs.
Articles:
https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/projects/spain/a-sensory-solution-to-efficient-urban-parking
Case 3:NYC - LinkNYC
LinkNYC is a project aimed to bring fast high speed public internet to everyone in the city. The goals as outlined on the official LinkNYC website are as follows:
Articles:
https://www.link.nyc/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/616210/average-internet-connection-speed-in-the-us/
Citations:
Toh, M. (2019, January 15). Alibaba's 'City Brain' is slashing congestion in its hometown. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/15/tech/alibaba-city-brain-hangzhou/index.html
Diamandis, P. H., Diamandis, P. H., Diamandis, P., & Fortune Magazine. (2019, March 7). The Smart Cities of the Future Are Already Taking Off. Retrieved from https://singularityhub.com/2019/03/08/the-smart-cities-of-the-future-are-already-taking-off/
A sensory solution to efficient urban parking -Projects. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/projects/spain/a-sensory-solution-to-efficient-urban-parking
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. (n.d.). . Retrieved from https://www.uab.cat/web/latest-news/news-detail/new-system-helps-locate-car-park-spaces-1096476786473.html?noticiaid=1278568901108
Intersection. (n.d.). LinkNYC. Retrieved from https://www.link.nyc/
Holst, A. (2018, August 13). Average internet connection speed in the U.S. 2007-2017. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/616210/average-internet-connection-speed-in-the-us/
- Use your personal device to connect to LinkNYC’s super fast, free Wi-Fi
- Access city services, maps and directions from the tablet
- Make free phone calls to anywhere in the U.S. using the tablet or the tactile keypad and microphone. Plug in your personal headphones for more privacy.
- Use the dedicated red 911 button in the event of an emergency
- Charge your device in a power-only USB port
- Enjoy more room on the sidewalk with Link’s sleek, ADA-compliant design by Antenna
- View public service announcements and more relevant advertising on two 55” HD displays
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| A LinkNYC Kiosk (Image From:https://www.link.nyc/) |
One of the glaring issues that I see is how fast technology has been developing over the past 10 years. From 2007-2017 we saw the average internet speed accessible to households become 5 times faster. Even today Gigabit Internet speeds 1gb/s are 300+ times faster than they were in 2007. As our data needs are constantly evolving even our gigabit speeds today may become obsolete in the next 10 years. However, I do think that creating public networks of access for internet is important in our increasingly technological world.
Currently, there are very few places where you can go to get internet without having to spend money, these places being libraries. Libraries are one of the few places left in the world and urban environments where people are allowed to exist and use all the libraries resources for little to no cost. I think LinkNYC is a good concept, but can only go so far if a city doesn't also establish areas to setup and sit down for extended periods of time. Overall I think there does need to be more generalized government subsidized spaces with internet access similar to libraries, but potentially more abundant.
Reliable communication technology is important for an IoT hub, just as a good foundation is important for any building. The US currently has some of the highest costs of internet per GB of data. Personally I think that internet needs to be treated as a public utility, not a paid private service. Having it as a public utility not only increases the quality for all people, but it also removes price gouging, speed throttling, etc. All practices currently used by the majority of major ISPs here in the US. One of the biggest issues facing a city with developing a smart hub will be data transmission and I think having to license/contract out city's internet to 3rd party companies poses an issue on its own, and makes these smart solutions only as reliable as the ISP, which we all know sucks if you have Comcast. In countries, like Korea, where internet is treated like a utility they have significantly reduced ping between devices on the Korean network as well as cost per GB of data.
It's kind of tangential, but my gripe with privately owned data infrastructure is more of a passion than anything else. I think there are entire groups that are marginalized here in the US because they cannot afford to or even have internet provider options at all. In this day and age groups that are marginalized from access to affordable internet are left at an inherent disadvantage from others who do have that access. Personally, I think that minimum internet access needs to be capable of maintaining a 720p30fps video stream or about 2.1-3 mbps/s with standard government regulated prices, no packages, no crap, just quality internet for a fair price.
It's kind of tangential, but my gripe with privately owned data infrastructure is more of a passion than anything else. I think there are entire groups that are marginalized here in the US because they cannot afford to or even have internet provider options at all. In this day and age groups that are marginalized from access to affordable internet are left at an inherent disadvantage from others who do have that access. Personally, I think that minimum internet access needs to be capable of maintaining a 720p30fps video stream or about 2.1-3 mbps/s with standard government regulated prices, no packages, no crap, just quality internet for a fair price.
Articles:
https://www.link.nyc/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/616210/average-internet-connection-speed-in-the-us/
Citations:
Toh, M. (2019, January 15). Alibaba's 'City Brain' is slashing congestion in its hometown. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/15/tech/alibaba-city-brain-hangzhou/index.html
Diamandis, P. H., Diamandis, P. H., Diamandis, P., & Fortune Magazine. (2019, March 7). The Smart Cities of the Future Are Already Taking Off. Retrieved from https://singularityhub.com/2019/03/08/the-smart-cities-of-the-future-are-already-taking-off/
A sensory solution to efficient urban parking -Projects. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/projects/spain/a-sensory-solution-to-efficient-urban-parking
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. (n.d.). . Retrieved from https://www.uab.cat/web/latest-news/news-detail/new-system-helps-locate-car-park-spaces-1096476786473.html?noticiaid=1278568901108
Intersection. (n.d.). LinkNYC. Retrieved from https://www.link.nyc/
Holst, A. (2018, August 13). Average internet connection speed in the U.S. 2007-2017. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/616210/average-internet-connection-speed-in-the-us/
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