James Bell

Bike-Sharing system or bicycle-sharing system has been around since 1965 when a group called Provo introduced it in the bicycle-loving Amsterdam. But the idea of bike-sharing created a buzz only after the entry of smart city concept. It began to be recognised as an effective tool to reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, travel costs, and fossil fuel-dependency while improving public health. Besides, making cities look much more vibrant, cool and cosmopolitan.

However, launching a bike-sharing system in cities and over time making it an appealing mode of transportation is no easy feat. It requires a significant private and public investment and alterations to the built environment while understanding the needs of citizens. Many bike-sharing programs have been initiated amidst much hype yet their popularity has soon declined. They have ended up being used mainly on weekends and for recreation purpose.

There are a number of factors that lead to the failure of a bike-sharing system. But according to reports, the most impactful factors that discourage people from opting for it are dockless systems or systems that do not have adequate docks in a city. Dockless systems increase the risk of theft and vandalism while insufficient docking points make it difficult for riders to park the bike at a given dock and hence reducing the proper redistribution of bikes. If this single issue is resolved, bike-sharing programs can easily meet success and become an irresistible transport option in smart cities.

We are living in an era that is witnessing the traditional cities turning into ‘smart cities’ with the technology penetrating at abnormal speeds. As we are moving closer to the beginning of a new year, there is a bubbling curiosity in the air about the technologies that will push the current advancements to further progress – continuing the transformative change.

In 2018, the tech world in the smart cities observed the development and gradual penetration of technologies like IoT, AI, Cloud computing, and of course Blockchain. Now, in 2019 the same technologies will surface as integrative technologies. They are set to play a more powerful role aiming at disrupting the marketplace while remodelling the consumer tech reality.

We look into the top 3 breakthroughs and hope that these will not just bring the latest state-of-the-art infrastructure in smart cities but also make them more secure, sustainable, and happening places to live in.

In the recent years, data has actually become the life-giving force of the developing innovations in smart cities around the world. Over the last 20 years, it has had a phenomenal impact on different industries including transport, retail, and utility. A lot of cities are taking data benefits to gain a better insight into city operations. A number of them have opened their data to promote transparency and to encourage innovators to create new services leveraging the data. Using data benefits, many brands in smart cities are now looking to implement digital innovations that can facilitate both the employees as well as customers.

The advanced cities are now going a step ahead by widening the scope of data. They are coming up with groundbreaking initiatives that are not just confined to their own cities but endeavouring to share benefits beyond the boundaries. Let us read on to know which influential brands in these smart cities are taking this step.

Automation, robots, and artificial intelligence – there is an increasing buzz around the deployment of these marvellous inventions when we have already started envisioning a future that will witness a new dawn of human-machine relationship.

On one side where people predict robots will conquer human jobs, on the greener side some anticipate the rise of high-skilled jobs for people. As a matter of fact, both the predictions seem to be coming true. Although robots are taking over the traditional human jobs, they are providing more advanced jobs for humans – securing safer jobs for us over a lifetime.

The initiatives discussed further are a concrete evidence to the interestingly contradictory anticipations. Different smart cities around the world are collaborating with the automation industry to launch autonomous vehicles for various purposes. They are paving the way to a more efficient, secure and convenient urban landscape.

History proves that cities have always been the centre of civilization. Be it social or economic, the innovation and the developments taking place in cities have always found its reverberations reaching other parts of the globe. Today, urbanisation is spreading around the world at a tremendous rate. More than half of the global population lives in cities and the number is still counting. A developed city like London has seen a population rise from 1 to 8.5 million in 140 years while even developing cities like Mumbai, Lagos, Sao Paulo, and Istanbul have seen a minimum 200,000 people flowing in each year in the recent decades. Lagos has witnessed a staggering 600,000 people moving in per year with a rate of 70 people per hour.

Are smart cities potentially safe to live? If we look into smart cities closely, these are urban communities, constantly using the power of cutting-edge digital and computing technology to monitor and manage the urban environment and simultaneously stay connected. Some of these universal technologies currently being used are IoT, Cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and mobile apps. People and the places including utility plants to commercial and residential buildings are digitally connected to help enhance the efficiency, comfort zone, and livability in the urban space. However, in the attempt to transform the utopian-like vision into reality, cities are becoming a hotbed for hacking.