[OPLIN 4cast] OPLIN 4Cast #757: Just how "smart" is Columbus, Ohio, anyway?

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OPLIN 4Cast #757: Just how "smart" is Columbus, Ohio, anyway?
June 30th, 2021

[image: Smart city] A couple of weeks ago, Columbus, Ohio completed the
last year of a multi-million dollar grant from the Department of
Transportation, meant to transform Columbus into a "smart city." I'd heard
about the initial awarding of the grant to Columbus, but hadn't heard much
since. On a hunch, I asked my Columbus-based coworkers what they had
observed themselves. Anecdotally, they couldn't come up with much; a
self-driving shuttle that had shut down, a parking app, and perhaps some
changed bus routes after data analysis was done.

Although not much was necessarily directly observable, reports show that
some more significant things did get done, and might serve as a template
for other cities. But not everyone agrees that much progress was made.

   -
   - All the tech that went into turning Columbus into a "smart city'
   <https://techcrunch.com/2021/06/28/all-the-tech-that-went-into-turning-columbus-ohio-into-a-smart-city>[Tech
   Crunch] "The app is based on open-source tools like OpenStreetMap and
   OpenTripPlanner. Etch uses the former to get up-to-date crowdsourced
   information from the community about what’s happening in a given area,
   similar to Waze. The latter is used to find itineraries for different forms
   of mobility."
   - America’s ‘Smart City’ Didn’t Get Much Smarter
   <https://www.wired.com/story/us-smart-city-didnt-get-much-smarter/>
   [Wired] "Five years later, the Smart City Challenge is over, but the
   revolution never arrived. According to the project’s final report, issued
   this month by the city’s Smart Columbus Program, the pandemic hit just as
   some projects were getting off the ground. Six kiosks placed around the
   city were used to plan just eight trips between July 2020 and March 2021.
   The company EasyMile launched autonomous shuttles in February 2020,
   carrying passengers at an average speed of 4 miles per hour. Fifteen days
   later, a sudden brake sent a rider to the hospital, pausing service. The
   truck project was canceled. Only 1,100 people downloaded an app, called
   Pivot, to plan and reserve trips on ride-hail vehicles, shared bikes and
   scooters, and public transit."
   - Columbus, Ohio, readies 'Smart Columbus 2.0'
   <https://statescoop.com/columbus-ohio-readies-smart-columbus-2-0/>
   [State Scoop] "Smart Columbus, which formed its mission in 2016 after
   winning a combined $50 million in transportation technology-focused grants
   from the USDOT and Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, will be sustained as a
   nonprofit, dubbed Smart Columbus 2.0, led by the Columbus Partnership
   focused on innovating civic technology outside of the “confines,” of the
   grants, Bishop said. Much of the future plans for the nonprofit, though,
   will reflect previous efforts to expand mobility options and encourage
   electric vehicle adoption in the Central Ohio region, she said."
   - Columbus, Ohio, and Others Land on Global Smart City Ranks
   <https://www.govtech.com/fs/columbus-ohio-and-others-land-on-global-smart-city-ranks.html>
[GovTech]
   "The top U.S. city is New York, ranked sixth, according to a new report
   from Eden Strategy Institute, a consulting firm based in Singapore that,
   among other things, supports companies and governments to bring innovation.
   The next U.S. city to make the list: Columbus, which ranks 11th — ahead
   of San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Moscow."

*From the Ohio Web Library <http://ohioweblibrary.org>:*

   - SMART CITY REALITY CHECK: Columbus, Ohio, navigates challenges of
   balancing its vision with practical ways to carry it out.
   <https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&AN=139059503&site=ehost-live>
   (Bigelow, P. (2019). SMART CITY REALITY CHECK: Columbus, Ohio, navigates
   challenges of balancing its vision with practical ways to carry it
out. *Automotive
   News*, *94*(6902), S016.)
   - Solving for the city.
   <https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sch&AN=149816878&site=ehost-live>
   (Clark, J. (2021). Solving for the city. *MIT Technology Review*, *124*(3),
   8.)
   - Columbus Forges Ahead With Smart City Pilot Projects
   <https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.oplin.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=140763000&site=ehost-live>
   (Cho, A. (2019). Columbus Forges Ahead With Smart City Pilot Projects. *ENR:
   Engineering News-Record*, *283*(15), 17.)

------------------------------
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