Columbus under construction to become America's first 'smart city'

[Doka]

Positive things for positive people.


Columbus under construction to become America's first 'smart city'

America’s first smart city is almost 2,500 miles from Silicon Valley. So it’s not San Francisco. It’s also 1,200 miles from Austin, Texas, home to one of America’s fastest-growing STEM workforces. It’s not Portland, Ore., Denver, Kansas City or Pittsburgh, either — though all were finalists in the 2016 Smart City Challenge.

America’s first smart city is Columbus, Ohio — the fastest-growing city in the Buckeye State and the second largest city in the Midwest, after Chicago.

Now, with $40 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation and another $10 million from Vulcan Inc., a company founded by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen, Columbus — “The Crossroads of Ohio” — is poised to become the blueprint for the future of urban planning.

But given the enormity and ambiguity of creating one, Davis and her colleagues are focusing on one thing at a time, starting with transportation. Columbus (pop. 860,090) experienced a worrisome increase in traffic congestion and car accidents as its population grew 1 percent last year, but Davis has no plans to add more highway lanes or parking garages. She’s not focusing on how many people are getting around, but how they’re getting around. 

“Mobility and transportation result in hundreds of deaths a year in our city,” Davis said. “If we can improve how people get around, we’ll save people’s lives.”

More Here

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/07/10/ ... -city.html