Shaping the Future of Urban Mobility
By IBI Insights
Date
July 20, 2016
The most lucrative smart city competition to date is over, and Columbus, Ohio emerged as the winner. While they may not have won, the six other finalists also made compelling pitches. The proposals put together by all seven cities, summarized by the Washington Post, provide an indication of where the future of urban mobility (at least in Western cities) may lie. While these proposal include a number of variations on autonomous vehicles, ride sharing and smart traffic coordination systems, all of them also include an emphasis on equity. This is summed up well by Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther, “Some people say, ‘What the heck does infant mortality have to do with transportation?’ I say, ‘Everything.” This focus appears to reflect a growing shift towards citizen co-creation in smart city development. More broadly, making these types of connections demonstrates a trend towards integrated systems thinking in cities, or simply, the concept that everything is connected to everything else.
