Free Republic

“Smart Cities,” which are very similar to “15-Minute Cities,” are no longer theoretical. The infrastructure is already being implemented across the globe and plans are in the works to move us into them. Most of our audience will say they would never participate, but their options may be limited if they don’t get ready to push back BEFORE they’re rolled out. In the near future, there will be three types of places where people live in western society, particularly in the United States. Most will live in variations of the current major cities, packed into small geographic locations as these...

Stratumseind in Eindhoven is one of the busiest nightlife streets in the Netherlands. On a Saturday night, bars are packed, music blares through the street, laughter and drunken shouting bounces off the walls. As the night progresses, the ground becomes littered with empty shot bottles, energy drink cans, cigarette butts and broken glass. It’s no surprise that the place is also known for its frequent fights. To change that image, Stratumseind has become one of the “smartest” streets in the Netherlands. Lamp-posts have been fitted with wifi-trackers, cameras and 64 microphones that can detect aggressive behaviour and alert police officers...

Just by indicating parking difficulty, cities can encourage people to take public transit rather than drive, perhaps mitigating traffic problems.According to the Telegraph, an average driver wastes a total of 2,549 hours looking for parking. That’s 106 days of wasted time. Now, those are statistics in the UK, but I bet that drivers in the US living in metro areas waste just as much — if not more — time looking for parking. Last week, Google quietly launched a new parking feature for Google Maps on Android across 25 major US cities. If you are in these metro areas, you will now see a...

The SDGs, that will define the global sustainable development agenda post-2015, are a proposed set of global development targets to be adopted by governments around the world. ... Citing good governance, planning and financing as among the key institutional factors for realising sustainable cities, the report said "responsibility and accountability are integral towards making our community more sustainable." "Good governance serves as a powerful inspiration for promoting reforms in policies and programmes for sustainable development," PwC said. "These include open and transparent opportunities for the poor and underprivileged to access information and secure their rights over land, forest and energy...

During his trip to India, President Obama declared America’s commitment to “help design smart cities” and “bullet trains” in the country. The main selling point for “smart cities” is that they are “sustainable,” a vague but applauded term that often used in context of combating what this author strongly believes is a non-existent problem: man-made climate change. During a speech at the Siri Fort Auditorium in India, Obama, who met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the tour, declared: We are ready to join you in building new infrastructure…roads and airports, the ports and bullet trains to propel India into...

The European Commission has announced a new €365 million a year innovation partnership scheme aimed at boosting the development of ‘smart’ technologies in cities, EU officials told the press on Tuesday (10 July). For 2013, €365 million in EU funds have been earmarked for the development of urban technology. The European Innovation Partnership (EIP) will see private business and the EU executive pool research from energy, transport and ICT to develop a limited number of approved projects. Examples of mooted projects included silent electric city buses that use digital technology, satellite technology aimed at improving traffic flow, a smartphone application...