Smart Cities

Houston, Texas, has started deploying digital kiosks throughout the city. In addition to offering wayfinding services and municipal resources to residents and visitors, they also serve as Internet connectivity hubs.

With the help of video game software developer Unity, the Orlando Economic Partnership is creating an interactive 3D map of the entire Orlando, Fla., region to show to companies who may want to locate in the area.

The city is partnering with a digital services technology provider to advance online and contactless services related to building applications, documents and even inspections with the planning office.

Norman was first named acting city CIO in 2020, following the departure of Santiago Garces. Her nomination by Mayor Ed Gainey to serve permanently will need to be approved by the City Council.

All city technology agencies will now operate under the Office of Technology and Innovation, overseen by Chief Technology Officer Matthew Fraser. Fraser took over the CTO position earlier this month.

Roughly half the funding from the federal infrastructure package will be dispersed through the U.S. Department of Transportation, handing the agency a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rethink the U.S. transportation system.

A new report by Otonomo took a look at how cities and states are (or aren't, more accurately) using connected vehicle data, finding that only a small fraction of transportation organizations use this data.

Waze, a navigation app owned by Google, has partnered with Norfolk, Va., to pilot an app that will allow drivers to get real-time information about flooded roads. The alert system was set up Monday.

Peoria, Ariz., has launched an autonomous shuttle pilot project in a medical district as an extension of the local transit service. The project will help officials gauge the public’s comfort level with the emerging tech.

Josh Cohen, host of The Movement podcast, shared some thoughts about Pittsburgh’s experiment with “universal basic mobility” in a new demonstration project to ease barriers to all forms of mobility.

At a summit earlier this month, experts explored policy questions around electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In general, policymakers should look at all levels of charging to serve as many EV use cases as possible.

Newly released research points to the need to both electrify the transportation sector and make cities less car dependent if there’s any hope of curtailing the worst effects of climate change.

At a recent Urbanism Next panel discussion, city officials from Boston and Minneapolis discussed mobility hub pilot projects, underscoring how hub locations can also serve as crucial community gathering spots.

Jascha Franklin-Hodge, who has been serving as executive director of the Open Mobility Foundation, will become the next chief of streets in Boston. Franklin-Hodge previously served as the city's chief information officer.

The new infrastructure bill has transportation and transit agencies thinking about which projects to prioritize to advance cleaner and more efficient transportation systems for the next several decades.

The federal grants program that funded the Smart City Challenge is set to grow to $500 million under the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, vastly expanding transportation innovation opportunities.

On-demand transit projects, like Metro Micro in Los Angeles, are proving instructive to how larger fixed-route services can evolve to be more convenient, flexible and equitable forms of mobility.

A report finds that only 71% of residents in Joplin, Mo., have a broadband connection, a number well below the national average of 87%. Joplin knows it can't become a smart city with this kind of gap.