If you wanted to get your blood
pumping to get you in the meeting mood,
you could have been guided to a bike from
any of the thousands stationed across the
city. Or you could have electronically
hailed a taxi, with price predictions based
on predicted journey times. All of this
would have been supported silently by
a vast network of cables and computers
trying to make the best decisions for the
metropolis as a whole. Welcome to a
Smart City. As more and more people pour into
our cities worldwide, the me ans to
k e e p p e o p l e m o v i n g ha s t o d e v e l o p
W hy s m a rt ? When looking at London, the options
for change vary according to timescale.
According to Alan Stevens, Chief Scientist
and Research Director of Transportation
at TRL, short term changes are about
“adjusting the provision of transport
services to better service demand,
ensuring that users are fully informed
of those changes.”
This can mean providing extra buses
for you to skip across town when trains
break down. It also means informing you
of disruption via your smartphone. This
data, or The Firehose, as it is called in app
developer circles, part powers apps like
CityMapper or Google Maps, telling
people how best to travel, with up-to-
date instructions that can change from
one moment to the next.
Medium and longer timescale changes
can take a year or two to come through, or
even decades in the case of new roads and
train lines. Examples given by Mr Stevens
include congestion charging zones, new
cycleways and the construction of
pedestrian zones. Such changes subtly
alter citizen behaviour by making
formerly unattractive options much more
appealing. Cycling on a dedicated cycle
lane rather than paying a congestion
charge to drive has a significant impact
on congestion around the broader road
network. Incentivising cycling, by making
it convenient, benefits the broader city.
New train and road links can redesign a
city, pushing people to live in newer,
How it works
The work that goes into building a
smart city’s transport should not be
underestimated. Take a city like London
with its centuries-old roads and decades-
old underground lines. Every decision
made, from where to run the cross-city
Crossrail route to how to implement new
traffic sensors, comes with an awareness
of the past and limitations on the future.
New technologies are adapted to mould
around existing infrastructure. As much
as possible, the old is augmented by the
When will it happen?
more convenient locations. For brand
new projects, city planners are given a
rare opportunity to build smart systems
from scratch, rather than having to
retrofit, although these opportunities
are admittedly few and far between.
W h at ’ s n e x t ?
Expect drivers to be replaced by machines
in the next ten years. The taxi you order
will be your neighbour’s car. Gluts of
traffic won’t just be dealt with by
changing traffic lights, they will be dealt
with by adaptive road systems – lanes
that change direction pragmatically, or
air cleaning systems that will deploy
automatically when pollution is high.
Just as important, expect to receive
ever more information as a citizen, not
just about which routes are fastest or
cheapest, but which are safest and
cleanest too. As the number of people
living and working in cities grows, so does
the means to keep those same people
living healthy, happy and mobile lives.
City planners have long been in a battle
with demographic trends. Technology
remains one of their surest weapons. ■
Smart Cities will enable us
to increasingly find our way
around with our phones
The firehose
Huge quantities of real-time
data make the running of a
smart city possible. Accessing
this data is done through what
is known as an Application
Programming Interface or API.
When you ask your smartphone
how to get to your meeting, it is
an API that makes it all possible.
But why is it called a firehose?
R e a d o n l in e at: u k s pa . o r g . u k / b r e a k t h r o u g h
Because if data were water,
the sheer volume of the stuff
needed to power the system
would be delivered by firehose,
not a mere bathroom tap.
W I N TER 2 0 17 | U K S PA b r e ak t h r o u g h | 7 5
As more and more people pour into
our cities worldwide, the means to
keep people moving and living side-by-
side have had to develop. Intelligent
transportation is designed to fight the
threat of gridlock. Without it, trains are
stuck in stations, traffic stands still, and
the rest of the city grinds to a halt.
Smart cities are attractive because
they offer a utopian alternative of the
future against such a dystopian backdrop.
The basic premise is that all the systems
of a city’s infrastructure – transport,
building operations and even public
spaces – work together in an interwoven
lattice of efficiency. Everyone, over a
long enough timeline, benefits. You,
the citizen, get nudged only when
needed, sometimes without you even
knowing it. Otherwise the city works
around you silently.
new, rather than replaced wholly. Tube
trains weave around sewers, smart camera
systems overlook historic statues.