THE VIEW Smart cities Dr Stephen Ladyman
The former UK Transport Minister says transport is the key thing the public will notice about future “smart cities”
local authorities the world over are putting a huge emphasis on urban innovation with the aim of building what is sometimes called the city of the future or the smart city. T e truth is, however, that whilst future cities will be very diff erent to the cities of today, whether or not they will be smart cities and hotbeds of innovation is far less certain. And if we believe there are benefi ts to deploying ‘smart’ technologies in our cities we need to make sure that the citizens of our cities, whose taxes must be used to deliver the smart city agenda, can see how they will benefi t from these investments. On the one hand, I have no doubt
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the smart city of the future will be mining data from a myriad of sources to increase productivity, aid planning decisions and deliver better healthcare and education; and ‘intelligent’ management of energy, water, waste and mobility will be at the heart of making cities more effi cient and sustainable. On the other hand, I am more doubtful that the citizens of the world’s cities will perceive any real personal benefi ts from these initiatives in the short term – with one exception. T e part of the smart city agenda that can be delivered today, can show a real return on investment and deliver a perceivable early benefi t to city dwellers suffi cient to justify to them the spending of their taxes is smart mobility and, in particular, the smart highway. Shorter journey times, a more
effi cient and enjoyable commute, greater journey predictability, easier parking, cleaner air and reduced business costs leading to increased employment are all benefi ts that cities, and their citizens, can derive today from investment in intelligent transport systems. Whereas the benefi ts to be gained by investment in other parts of the smart city agenda can oſt en seem esoteric to the
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he urban centres of the world drive the global economy. T at is why governments and
are prevalent. In the world of ‘good intentions’ the need to minimise carbon emissions restricts personal mobility and traffi c volumes are low forcing businesses to adopt energy effi cient practices and optimise logistics. As the team pointed
out, the world of the future is unlikely to match exactly any one of these scenarios and will probably refl ect elements of more than one. What they do
ordinary citizen, the benefi ts of driving forward with smart mobility in the short term are tangible and clear. More than that – we also know that
the attitude we have to ITS will be a key factor in determining the shape of the city of the future. In 2005 when I was Minister of State for Transport, the foresight team were asked to consider how the world of 2055 would look depending on how accepting we were of intelligent transport infrastructure and whether we deployed high or low impact transport systems. T e team identifi ed four potential scenarios that were not intended to be predictions of the future but visualisations of what we might need to prepare for. ‘Perpetual motion’ was the foresight
team’s label for a society driven by constant information consumption. In this scenario, the availability of clean fuels means that road use causes less environmental damage and the demand for travel remains strong. In the ‘urban colonies’ scenario good environmental practice focuses on minimising environmental impact and transport is only allowed if it is ‘green and clean’ and car use is restricted. ‘Tribal trading’ would emerge from a world that has experienced a savage energy shock, long distance travel is only for the rich, cities have declined, food production and service delivery is done locally, there are confl icts over resources and mistrust and lawlessness
smarthighways.net
The part of the smart city agenda that can be delivered today, can show a real return on investment and deliver a perceivable early benefit to city dwellers sufficient to justify to them the spending of their taxes is smart mobility
tell us, however, is that the cities of tomorrow will be diff erent from those of today and the transport decisions we are making and the willingness of those who plan city infrastructure to implement intelligent transport systems will be a key determinant of the shape of the world we leave our children and grandchildren. Smart highways and the
implementation of intelligent transport infrastructure is the part of the smart city agenda that is practical today and would also be popular with today’s taxpayers. If the foresight team are right and that being accepting to intelligent transport systems and innovative in generating low impact transport solutions will have a positive long term impact on the world of tomorrow we need to work harder to get that message out to our civic leaders now.
Dr Stephen Ladyman was the UK Minister of State for Transport between 2005- 07. He is currently the Smart City Ambassador for the Clearview Traffic Group
stephen.ladyman@
clearviewtraffic.com
clearviewtraffic.com Vol 2 No 1 smartHIGHWAYS
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