Are You Living In A 'Smart City'?

Part of the Smart City ethos is to get the citizens involved - and, by extension, doing some of the work. An app like Waze relies on data from all its users' smartphones, and can re-route traffic as soon as one road starts to snare up. Can you use an app to help you avoid traffic as it happens?

It may not seem like it sometimes, but there are usually enough parking spaces in cities for everyone. Sensors know where these are and can direct frustrated would-be parkers off the road quickly, getting them out of everyone else’s way. Does your phone talk to parking spaces to tell you when they're free?

In Bristol (where the aim is to get citizens involved with their Smart Cities), people were encouraged to text their lamp post if they noticed a fault - and were liable to get a jokey reply. Soon, as many as 10,000 people were chatting to their "street furniture". Can you send a text to your lamp post, post box, or fire hydrant?

One of the big Smart City goals is to make all the fiddly bits of government a little easier for citizens to cope with. This generally means one easy-to-navigate website. But in Yinchuan they’ve also built a gigantic Citizens Hall, shaped (roughly) like a phoenix, and boasting a waiting room with a cinema. If you need to get some admin done (a passport application, or something to do with your business, for example) is it straightforward and all online?

In the name of sustainability, lots of Smart Cities are introducing intelligent water meters so you can work out where you use most of your water, and consider cutting down. This is particularly pertinent in California, which is currently suffering a critical drought. Can you tell exactly how much water you use?

Digital menus are to restaurants what self-service checkouts are to supermarkets - cutting out bothersome interaction between diners and waiting staff. Very much a decision by the restaurant rather than the city, of course. But potential big data on eating habits could be useful. Can you order your food without having to bother a waiter?

Not so useful in the UK, but one of the most successful apps introduced in Canadian cities showed people how far away the nearest snow plough was, and when they might expect to be released from their snowy incarceration. Do you know exactly where emergency services or transport are in your city?

Another service popular in Canada, eRecreation gives you the closest leisure centre - plus prices. Because making exercise easier leads to healthier, happier citizens. Are you well informed on your perfect swimming pool choice while on the go?

Surveillance is an important part of Smart Cities. However there’s always a high risk the public think they’re being spied on - even if it is for their protection or comfort. Surveillance goes beyond crime prevention in Yinchuan, with a camera monitoring customer service at every desk in the Citizens Hall. Are cameras (and even drones) always keeping you safe and/or keeping an eye on you?

One of the niftiest examples of the Smart City we heard about at the event came from the bicycle-mad Dutch city of Groningen. Their traffic lights include weather sensors which don't keep cyclists waiting as long in a downpour. Do your traffic lights take pity on you in some way?

It’s one thing recording all that data, but you’ve got to put some solutions into practice. Where traffic pollution is concerned, electric cars are the future. That requires charging points today, but in the future maybe *whisper it* the road could charge your car as you drive... Do you have lots of charging points for electric cars?

Above all else, Smart Cities are designed to make life better for people - and if the citizens are more miserable then the city is failing. Which is why some cities attach ratings systems to as many services as they can. Dubai is really hot on collecting this data in real time, and recently registered 75% happiness among the population. Does your city regularly ask you how happy you are?