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Smart Cities

Coverage of the sensor-connected cities collecting and harnessing data on traffic, air quality, crime and more to create safer, more efficient urban centers.

A new report on micromobility ridership in 2023 from the National Association of City Transportation Officials examines trends in the use of shared bikes and scooters, in the U.S. and Canada.
The new program, which the public can access online, maps crimes in the city using 15 icons to show arson, assault, burglary, vandalism and vehicle burglaries. It retains data for up to 180 days, though precise locations are not shown.
GreenWealth Energy and Voltpost will expand low-speed, dwell charging at multifamily housing locations and curbside, to make electric vehicles a more workable solution for renters and people with lower incomes.
SouthWest Transit, which serves three of the city’s suburbs, will debut the area’s first autonomous vehicles this fall in Eden Prairie. For now, the service will operate with human drivers on board.
In a forecast, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council warns data centers could use up to 4,000 megawatts on average of electricity by 2029 — enough to power the entire city of Seattle five times over — setting up potential shortfalls.
The cities of Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse collectively received funding via a “tech hub” competition run by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. They’ll use it to develop an area semiconductor industry.
Cities are no longer seeing their miles of streetscape as cheap parking spaces. Curbs are now considered some of the most in-demand pieces of urban real estate, and technology is stepping up to help manage them.
Some 75 percent of low-income residents in Philadelphia, for example, say that they cannot afford to pay more than $21 a month for a broadband subscription.
City officials said Tuesday they had deployed the first 100 cameras; the other 300 are expected to be on the street by July. The devices, paid for by a $17 million state grant, are intended to take on organized retail theft.
Ruling that the Fourth Amendment protects a person’s right to privacy, a Norfolk Circuit Court has granted a defendant’s motion to suppress evidence obtained by city-owned license plate reader cameras, but without a search warrant.