With smart cities, technology is not the problem

Source: Powergrid International, By Jennifer Runyon

It was true when the Smart Cities Connect conference began back in 2016, and it is still true today, technological solutions to many of the issues that plague cities — information access, air quality, traffic, energy management, to name a few — already exist. The real challenge that stops putting those fixes in place? The humans.  

That’s the message that Chelsea Collier, Editor at Large of Smart Cities Connect, said in an interview at the spring conference in Denver, Colorado.  “Smart City technology is ready and available — that isn’t the issue. It is important smart city tech be designed and deployed thoughtfully, equitably, and in alignment with the community. That brings in challenges with people and processes,” said Collier. “It can be challenging to get people to embrace new ways of thinking and new ways of doing things.”

Smart San Antonio

Collier was impressed with the approach San Antonio, Texas is taking to adopting new technology. The city has created a Smart City Roadmap with 5 challenge areas and has an open call to the industry to show them potential solutions. The challenges are:

Access to Public Information

• Access to Transportation

• Resilience and Environmental Quality

• Public Safety

• Safe Infrastructure

The challenges were drawn from a year-long process where the city gathered public input on the question “What makes a Smart City.”  On its website, the city explains…

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