Companies tackle smart city barriers

Barriers to Smart CItiesBI Intelligence

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Transportation platform provider Kritek and Skyline Products, a manufacturer of signs and billboards, will work together to provide cities around the world with an all-in-one, cloud-based, smart city solution that is designed to help cities improve traffic flow.

This includes the hardware — sensors, connected cameras, and connected streetlights — and cloud-based software that can work on top of existing infrastructure, preventing cities from needing to redesign or remodel existing infrastructure. Since both companies are based in the US, it's likely that'll be the first market the companies' target for their new offering.

The companies' planned offering helps cities tackle one of the largest barriers to smart city adoption, so it's possible it could catch on.

  • The top reason municipalities don't turn to smart city solutions is because they're often fairly expensive. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, many cities saw their tax revenues drop substantially, and they still haven't recovered significantly. And since transforming into a smart city can be pricey — Barcelona's smart city deployments costscity taxpayers $230 million every year — many cities decide against adopting smart city solutions altogether. Seventy percent of city officials surveyed in the US said budget constraints was one of the top three barriers their city faced in adopting smart city solutions.
  • Kritek and Skyline's planned offering could help solve that. A major part of the cost of smart cities is the installation process — cities often need to redesign buildings, bridges, and other infrastructure that's decades old, which is a long, expensive process. But since Kritek and Skyline's planned offering can be built on top of existing city infrastructure, that eliminates the need for cities to redesign infrastructure for smart city solutions, which in turn could convince more cities to purchase their offering.

Jonathan Camhi, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on smart cities that:

  • Details the different types of smart cities technologies and applications that have become most prevalent in different markets around the world.
  • Provides examples of some of the top smart city projects in different regions that address transportation, energy, crime, and other issues.
  • Explains how unique social, political, and economic factors are impacting smart city development in different regions.
  • Details factors that could help jumpstart smart city development in the Americas, Africa, and other parts of the world that have lagged behind comparable markets.
  • Explains the unique barriers to smart city development in different parts of the world, such as data privacy concerns in Europe and lack of support from the federal government in the US.

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