New technologies, like automated and connected vehicles, will soon make travel significantly safer and more convenient. Advances in data processing are enabling governments and private companies alike to improve transportation services and better target investments. Government is evolving to support these beneficial technologies, while working to ensure they are safe and secure.
Cities want to hit the ground running on connected vehicles by adding DSRC technology to fleet vehicles first, so they can quickly demonstrate its potential to improve safety, decrease congestion, and reduce emissions. Cities are also pioneering new ways to collect, integrate, and analyze travel data to guide policies and investments, improve transparency, encourage collaboration, and optimize system performance.
The finalists proposed a wide range of strategies to collect and analyze transportation system data, including:
- Installing closed-circuit cameras and sensors to collect data on vehicle movements, transit reliability, and pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
- Collecting data from vehicle probes, connected vehicles, and connected infrastructure.
- Establishing open data platforms and inviting citizens to participate in hackathons.
New technologies are emerging that aim to change the way active transportation data is collected, making it less expensive and easier to collect, resulting in more reliable data.
The Smart City Challenge finalists recognize that to get smarter they need to enhance their ability to collect, process, analyze and share data. They plan to take in data from an immense array of sources from connected DSRC infrastructure, crowdsourced data from smartphone users, and a variety of new sensors that can detect everything from air quality to road temperatures and conditions, from shots fired to earthquakes. They also understand that only by building a resilient, secure privacy-driven data platforms will the public feel confident sharing their data.
Six of the seven finalists proposed creating ‘mobility marketplaces’ to allow residents to find and pay for a variety of transportation options – bikeshare, carshare, transit, rideshare – all in one place. These marketplaces would have a single shared payment platform, which could be managed via smartphone app, website, or payment card. Portland proposed integrating dynamic pricing and incentives into their mobility marketplace so that during a sporting event, for example, special discounts could be made available through the mobility platform to promote the use of transit or bikeshare.