When cities were born, no one imagined so many people would exist in the same place. The world has gone from villages to metropolis with millions of residents.

When you build a family home, you design a project that considers all areas of the land: where you want the house, the swimming pool, etc. Now imagine you buy the lot next to yours and want to expand your house. The second project will be an extension of the first. But the two projects won’t be fully integrated, as you didn’t consider the neighboring lot initially.

That’s what happened to cities! ​

With population growth, many problems started to appear. Increased pollution and more traffic jams, for example, are caused not only by more cars but also by bad parking arrangements – which are usually responsible for about 30% of a city’s traffic and 10% of its CO2 emissions. Population growth also makes it harder for cities to have efficient public transportation systems, as distances increase and there’s more demand on the system. There’s a need for new lines and for more efficient planning of how resources are used. When we speak about private transportation, an increase in the number of cars and old street layouts also makes it harder for the traffic flow to be kept at a good rate.

But beyond these easy-to-identify problems of big cities exist other problems related to security, tax compliance, and so on.​ But beyond these easy-to-identify problems of big cities exist other problems related to security, tax compliance, and so on.

​Another example of a smart city project we’ve worked on is a cloud-based solution created to be a single source of information for vehicles, road infrastructure, and people so that hazard alerts can be shared in real time with road users and incident managers.

The most common challenges that smart city projects cover are parking lot issues, public transportation, security and tax inspection, and traffic management. Let’s take a look at how technology can overcome each of these challenges and make cities more sustainable.

Parking issues

Imagine your car is connected to the city traffic agency and to a parking application that can show you available parking spots near your destination together with a scheme that shows you the best way to park. You can also select if you want the cheapest or the closest place, for example, and use the application to reserve a parking spot on the go. Companies like VW and T-Mobile are investing in these types of solutions and are running pilot projects in cities around the globe.