Smart city development must be motivated by a desire to improve people’s lives rather than placing focus primarily on the advancement of technology, a new report out this week has emphasised.
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The ‘Rethinking Smart Futures’ document published by professional services firm PwC and the London Transport Museum sets out a vision for smart cities that are socially inclusive, enabled by transport and powered by technology and data.
“Often, the pursuit of new technologies has been the driving force behind our move toward a smarter future,” said London Transport Museum director Sam Mullins. “But if the advancement of technology remains an end in itself and is not motivated by meeting the needs of people, then we risk creating smart cities and transport networks which result in communities across the UK becoming divided and socially exclusive.”
The report outlines a number of key hurdles to smart city development, including the availability of too many different innovations to choose from and the need for collaboration among multiple organisations across the public and private sectors.
It recommends that central Government should devise a funding framework for smart cities that looks beyond traditional performance measures, like GDP, which would provide a basis for cities to press ahead with their own visions.
It also encourages the creation of regulated processes and networks for data sharing that are resilient to cyber attacks, and calls for all levels of government to cooperate in refocusing public procurement to support collaboration and innovation.
PwC’s transport leader Grant Klein said: “There are elements of the ‘smart city’ emerging across the UK, tackling issues such as transport, health and data in cities including Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester.
“But progress overall is still piecemeal across the UK. If we are to encourage economic growth and meet the evolving needs of our citizens, we need to step things up a gear and put transport at the heart of every decision.”
The report was produced in collaboration with law firm Gowling WLG and transport and security company Thales.
Speakers at the MaaS Market event in London next Wednesday and Thursday will debate transportation's future, discuss digitised, demand led travel and consider local authority challenges. Delegates from the public sector staff receive a discount. To find out more, visit maas-market.com
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