Snapper Services
Navigating the Future: Enabling the Citizen-Centred Smart City
This article first appeared in the Bus-News Magazine Issue 1 2024.
By Miki Szikszai, CEO of Snapper Services
The vision of a human-centred, open, inclusive and diverse city has redefined urban landscapes across the globe.
Since its conception in the 1970s, the smart cities concept has evolved from a technology-centric strategy to a citizen-focused environment. Adam Greenfield’s collection of essays “The city is here for you to use” is an on-point summary of the current vision for the smart city.
Councils and urban authorities are prioritising health and safety, mobility, economic and educational opportunities as well as governance as they evolve their cities in line with the complex and ever-changing nature of human society. Today, the leading smart city exemplars target high quality of life, sustainable economic growth and transportation networks. The IMD Smart City Index 2023 has Asia and Europe as the leading regions, with so-called ‘second-tier’ cities ahead of the pack.
An increasing number of councils are moving away from a centrally controlled and managed urban environment towards one that easily adapts and responds to the complex web of human, social and environmental interactions. This includes a particular focus on developing superior public transit services.
These promising trends combine citizen participation, committed urban development professionals, and advanced technologies to continuously improve mobility within a city.
Enabling citizen-centred smart cities means understanding where we are now and how the intersection between the rapidly emerging micromobility domain, demand-responsive transport (DRT) and fixed-schedule mass transit will play a role if we are to move towards truly accessible, sustainable and well-connected cities.
Connected City Landscapes
Connected cities have truly arrived, with governments and transit operators across the globe harnessing the power of new technology to improve the lives of citizens. Central to these efforts are the trustworthy, open data systems that are a foundation of smart cities.
