We must try to democratize all access, to improve services to the population. But the technologies are already invented. This means that all people must have accessible mobility and that there are no gaps where one person needs two hours to get to work, while another only takes 30 minutes.
The formula to achieve smart, accessible cities with democratic access to technology is the combination of big data, humanity and talent, agreed the experts of the panel ‘Smart Cities: The cities of tomorrow’ within the Inter.Mx Expansión Summit 2022.
The cities of Latin America are still far from adopting existing technologies in an ideal way, while the routes of smart cities in the world increasingly become long-term projects. Sharing massive data (big data) with the actors responsible for public policies is vital to achieve this in countries like Mexico, said Ingrid Avilés, Waze Country Manager for Mexico.
But, although the technologies already exist, the mission is, in reality, to involve all the actors of society to ensure that more and more smart cities emerge in the country. An example is the collaboration that exists between families, authorities, companies and the police in the Benito Juárez mayor’s office in Mexico City.
In it, families make the video surveillance infrastructure available to society, the authority collaborates with a coordination and monitoring center, while the police act based on these data, said Santiago Cardona, CEO of Intel Mexico, by way of example. the leading company in the manufacture of semiconductors in the world and that collaborates with the capital’s mayor’s office.
Mexico has everything for this to happen; the government should help
The speakers at the Smart Cities panel: The cities of tomorrow agreed that one of the current needs is the talent that creates the necessary innovations.
“Innovation is the driving force behind smart cities, we need the government to be part of that,” said Louise K. Goeser, president of Megaflux, who added that “Mexico has the ideal spaces to trigger a smart cities revolution.” . Megaflux is a company that specializes in urban mobility with electric vehicles and other technological applications. For Goeser, Mexico City already has great connectivity that can be used for a more sustainable transition.
“Society and government must be made aware of the importance of technology, to take advantage of the great advantages that smart cities have,” Santiago Cardona, CEO of Intel Mexico.
The importance of big data
Real-time data on what is happening in a city is something very valuable and can help create mobility policies with less and less negative externalities, said Ingrid Avilés, Waze Country Manager.
As an example, he cited an exercise in which Waze and the Mexico City government participated to locate and implement bike lanes in those places where they would have less negative impact on commerce, less accident rate and greater benefit for active mobility.
One of the crucial roles of Waze, as a company, was to provide useful massive data to identify the largest number of variables that play a role in the mobility of Mexico City.
The lessons of the pandemic
One of the great things about the home office is that it allows us to use our work capabilities while enjoying the city. Those are the lessons that the pandemic can teach us. As humanity we are learning to enhance all the technologies of an intelligent city, said Santiago Cardona.
Active mobility is another legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic, its rediscovery and more entrenched adoption.
For her part, Louise K. Goeser, President of Megaflux indicated that “the technologies have to be economical, they have to be better and more efficient than the ones we had before and that depends on us”.
