Exhausted privacy versus freedom to live
Smart cities are places, which have been implemented using the most modern technical control and maintenance systems. This can, among other things, reduce traffic congestion and energy consumption, save time and increase living comfort. To complete this task successfully, almost all information related to infrastructure, human behavior and communication is collected. Even before smart cities, information on human behavior has been collected by means of Internet search engines and smartphone applications. However, most of this information has been used for advertising. However, smart cities are designed with the idea of controlling everything. This control is not suggestive like ads but rather imperative. Before the city even exists, the controlling principles have been formulated. Smart cities have been accused of being too technology-driven. Therefore, alternative concepts of smart cities have emerged. The following paragraphs compare two different smart cities and discuss the measures that can made these places more attractive to live in. [2]
In the city of Barcelona, collection of information has been made acceptable and useful for the citizens by allowing them access the data collected. This way, it is much more easier to discern if the data is used by some unethical manner. Further, it is possible for the citizens to have impact on how the data is collected and used. The ultimate goal in this is to provide the ownership of personal data for the humans. To manage all these features, an own platform CityOS has been created. It is an open-source system that analyzes the data and it can be used to display the data on user interface. For these options to be useful for the citizens, they need technical competence. Training is provided for everybody as are technical tools. [3]
Even in the smartest of smart cities, such as Songdo in South Korea, private cars couldn’t be totally given up. The city was not planned to have substantial private traffic, which has caused lots of trouble. Private cars are needed because the walking distances for everyday activities were too long. As much green areas and parks were desired, it has meant longer distances to shops, services and work [1]. Instead of trying manage without private cars, the use of cars has been optimized in Barcelona[3]. A real-time parking guidance system has been created to avoid extra kilometers driven when looking for a parking lot. It has been estimated, that forty percent of the total city traffic consists of cars driving around when trying to park somewhere. The public transport has been made more alluring by streamlining the timetable and route arrangements and information. People don’t have to stand on the bus stops long waiting for the bus. Why to take all this trouble, why just forbid private cars? In Songdo, it has been difficult to get people move to the city, where sixty percent of apartments still are empty [1]. In order to keep the smart cities viable, a certain degree of services should be provided.
To avoid the hinder for development of smart cities, the city structure must be modified to better fit the needs of citizens. That is, to avoid long distances and car traffic, super blocks of houses are used. These blocks are small villages with all basic services. This solution meets the challenge of preventing social isolation, which has been dominant feature in Songdo. Parks and market places in these super blocks provides an easily reachable meeting place, where people can communicate freely. There is no need to control and restrict this kind of moving and communication, because it consumes no fuel or electricity and does not pollute. These arrangements decrease traffic and
save costs. However, the super block idea does not restrict mobility in itself. On the contrary, many innovations help to make moving from one place to another easier and faster. At the same time costs will be saved. Technical improvements such as smart elevators and mobile applications calculating the fastest path to the destination help to achieve all this. [3]
To sum up the improvements, the next generation smart cities like Barcelona are more open and controllable to citizens. The citizens should have ownership of their own personal data. Strict rules have been relaxed. For example, the use of private cars is better managed to avoid unnecessary
traffic. Further, when the public transportation is concerned, the route planning and control has been arranged to be smarter than ever. Finally, the huge cities will become more like a collection of independent small villages, than a centralized solution. Although dystopia can’t be completely reversed to utopia, many improvements can be achieved to make the future smart cities places, where the people like to move in.
[1] Sleepy in Songdo, Korea’s Smartest City. Citylab. Available: https://www.citylab.com/life/2018/06/sleepy-in-songdo-koreassmartest-city/561374/[Accessed: 5.12.2019].
[2] Smart cities. Amnesty International. Available:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2019/06/smartcities-dreams-capable-of-becomingnightmares/[Accessed: 5.12.2019].
[3] Smart City 3.0 — Ask Barcelona about the next generation of smart cities. Urban Hub. Available:
http://www.urban-hub.com/cities/smart-city-3-0-askbarcelona-about-the-next-generation-ofsmart-cities/ [Accessed: 5.12.2019].
