10 features that the city of the (near) future will have
The city of the future will provide citizens with a more comfortable life thanks to M2M technology ( 3G Industrial Router ). Some advances are already making their way into our urban environments and many others will come soon. We have highlighted ten features that the city of the future will have. You can see many others in our web-section about Smart Cities.
Smart parking. There will be systems that will alert drivers when there is a free parking spot. Citizens will no longer waste their time looking for a place to park and the city will be less polluted. Did you know that by reducing the average time required to park a vehicle from 15 to 12 minutes can reduce CO2 emissions by 400 tonnes in a city such as Barcelona?
Intelligent transport system. You probably won’t have to wait to take advantage of this feature. Many public transport systems are already interconnected. This allows for different public transports to be coordinated and to provide information in real time.
Tele-care. Some medical consultations will no longer be necessary. There are monitorization systems for patients which keep their doctor up to date when something such as a rise in blood pressure or sugar occurs.
Traffic management. Monitoring road systems will inform drivers about which route is best at any given time. Also, it will automatically manage the traffic lights in order to reduce congestion to the minimum taking into account the traffic volume at certain times of the day.
Smart grids. They will provide the necessary amount of electricity depending on the demand. This way the power efficiency will be maximized. There are some cities that are testing these systems, as Málaga, for instance.
Smart urban lighting. Why waste energy if nobody is on the street? Smart urban lighting will adjust the intensity of the light depending on the people who are around.
Waste management. Not all places generate the same kind or the same amount of waste. With smart containers and a good fleet management system, the routes can be tailored to any situation. Thanks to this kind of solution, the efforts in waste collection will be much more efficient.
Smart city maintenance. Citizens will now be able to rely on systems to notify the City Council of any damages in the urban elements through their smartphones. This way things will be repaired faster.
Smart taxi. Taxi fleet will be connected and customers will be able to book a taxi with an application. The localization system will notify the closest one without the need of human interaction. There are already some mobile applications for taxis, such as My Taxi.
Digital-signage. Urban ads will be tailored to each citizen and advertising will provide services. Whereas now we see many concert posters around the city, in the future the customer will have the chance to actually buy the ticket via the billboard.
