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| Recently completed bridge allowing vehicular traffic to bypass Hoover Dam. May 6, 2013. |
Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label traffic. Show all posts
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Bypass Bridge
Friday, May 11, 2012
IBM Team Finds Innovative Use of Technology Could Ease Nairobi’s Traffic Jams
IBM Team Finds Innovative Use of Technology Could Ease Nairobi’s Traffic Jams
Execution of identified projects could help relieve city gridlock within 90 days of implementation
NAIROBI, Kenya - 11 May 2012: A team of IBM (NYSE:IBM) top experts assigned to Nairobi today provided a cohesive framework and roadmap to the city to improve the flow of road traffic and increase revenues from the transportation sector.
The recommendations complement Nairobi's considerable ongoing investment in underlying roadway infrastructure. They include making traffic information more readily available to citizens, motorists, police, policymakers and planners so that better transportation decisions can be made in the near and far term.
The blueprint presented by the IBM team also includes suggestions for using available technologies, including mobile phones, sensors and closed-circuit television, to more automatically pinpoint traffic issues. In the recommended plan, parking and licensing would also be digitized and automated -- streamlining bureaucratic processes and increasing citizen satisfaction. The plan prescribes enhanced collaboration between various transport bodies.
The IBM team, which performed several months of preparation before spending three weeks in local residence, studied Nairobi’s transportation system as part of an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant valued at Sh33 million (US$400,000), announced in March of this year.
“A city is a system of systems. One key finding of the study is that technology could provide a relatively simple way of bringing together existing systems to streamline the city’s transport sector and increase revenues for the government,” said Tony Mwai, Country General Manager, IBM East Africa.
Despite impressive investments in building road networks, inefficiencies within the city's transport sector cost Nairobi an estimated Sh50 million per day, negating revenues and commercial benefits from otherwise significant road infrastructure, and limiting the region’s economic growth.
“The government has made immense investments in infrastructure over the last 10 years but we are challenged by the fact that many departments within government are working in isolation and not collaborating,” said Dr. Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications.
“We will review these recommendations made by the IBM team with a view to fast-tracking them to help maintain Nairobi’s position as a key regional economic hub,” Dr. Ndemo said.
Intelligent Transport Solutions
The team of IBM consultants recommended the creation of a cross-departmental Smarter Transportation Authority that would harness initiatives taking place across government agencies under a single unit.
This would allow for faster rollout of decongestion plans, enhancing revenue collection for government agencies and tightening enforcement of traffic rules.
In addition, the IBM consultants advised the development of a Smarter Transportation Platform with an intelligent operations command center, leveraging existing and new closed-circuit television networks that show vehicle, traffic and roadway conditions as events unfold.
Enabling stakeholders such as citizens and police to view these video feeds online would lead to a decrease in traffic congestion by allowing commuters to plan their trips accordingly and police to allocate manpower more efficiently.
Another suggestion was to integrate data from multiple sources, including mobile phone signals generated from citizens stuck in traffic jams, to pin-point traffic hot-spots. Analytics software could then be used to predict future flow issues, pushing the information needed to re-direct traffic to the intelligent operations center.
The team also suggested digitizing parking for the speed and ease of finding parking spaces, to minimize congestion and to reduce environmental impact as well as using mobile devices to empower traffic police to monitor and manage traffic offenders through an intelligent enforcement solution.
The team’s findings follow the recent launch of an IBM research report titled "A Vision of a Smarter City: How Nairobi Can Lead the Way into a Prosperous and Sustainable Future," which highlights transportation, energy and public safety as three critical areas that the city must address in order to boost its economic competitiveness.
Smarter Cites Challenge
Nairobi beat 140 other cities around the world to become one of IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge winners in March. Launched in 2011, the IBM initiative is a three-year, 100-city US $50 million program and is IBM's single-largest philanthropic outreach.
Along with the deployment of a specialist team of expert consultants who focus on the city’s primary challenge, IBM provides special assistance to each winning city on the use of City Forward (http://www.cityforward.org), a free online site IBM created with public policy experts. Citizens, elected officials and urban planners can use the site to explore trends and statistics in a visual and accessible way, which can be adapted for the examination of any number of urban issues -- leading to better decision making.
“Nairobi demonstrated a desire to set an example for other municipalities, an eagerness to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, and a strong commitment to consider implementing recommendations the city felt would be the most feasible and beneficial to its residents." said Stanley S. Litow, IBM vice president of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, and President of IBM's Foundation.
To find out more about IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants, please visithttp://smartercitieschallenge.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sJ_3H0K3zo
For more information about IBM's philanthropic initiatives, please visit www.citizenibm.com.
The blueprint presented by the IBM team also includes suggestions for using available technologies, including mobile phones, sensors and closed-circuit television, to more automatically pinpoint traffic issues. In the recommended plan, parking and licensing would also be digitized and automated -- streamlining bureaucratic processes and increasing citizen satisfaction. The plan prescribes enhanced collaboration between various transport bodies.
The IBM team, which performed several months of preparation before spending three weeks in local residence, studied Nairobi’s transportation system as part of an IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant valued at Sh33 million (US$400,000), announced in March of this year.
“A city is a system of systems. One key finding of the study is that technology could provide a relatively simple way of bringing together existing systems to streamline the city’s transport sector and increase revenues for the government,” said Tony Mwai, Country General Manager, IBM East Africa.
Despite impressive investments in building road networks, inefficiencies within the city's transport sector cost Nairobi an estimated Sh50 million per day, negating revenues and commercial benefits from otherwise significant road infrastructure, and limiting the region’s economic growth.
“The government has made immense investments in infrastructure over the last 10 years but we are challenged by the fact that many departments within government are working in isolation and not collaborating,” said Dr. Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications.
“We will review these recommendations made by the IBM team with a view to fast-tracking them to help maintain Nairobi’s position as a key regional economic hub,” Dr. Ndemo said.
Intelligent Transport Solutions
The team of IBM consultants recommended the creation of a cross-departmental Smarter Transportation Authority that would harness initiatives taking place across government agencies under a single unit.
This would allow for faster rollout of decongestion plans, enhancing revenue collection for government agencies and tightening enforcement of traffic rules.
In addition, the IBM consultants advised the development of a Smarter Transportation Platform with an intelligent operations command center, leveraging existing and new closed-circuit television networks that show vehicle, traffic and roadway conditions as events unfold.
Enabling stakeholders such as citizens and police to view these video feeds online would lead to a decrease in traffic congestion by allowing commuters to plan their trips accordingly and police to allocate manpower more efficiently.
Another suggestion was to integrate data from multiple sources, including mobile phone signals generated from citizens stuck in traffic jams, to pin-point traffic hot-spots. Analytics software could then be used to predict future flow issues, pushing the information needed to re-direct traffic to the intelligent operations center.
The team also suggested digitizing parking for the speed and ease of finding parking spaces, to minimize congestion and to reduce environmental impact as well as using mobile devices to empower traffic police to monitor and manage traffic offenders through an intelligent enforcement solution.
The team’s findings follow the recent launch of an IBM research report titled "A Vision of a Smarter City: How Nairobi Can Lead the Way into a Prosperous and Sustainable Future," which highlights transportation, energy and public safety as three critical areas that the city must address in order to boost its economic competitiveness.
Smarter Cites Challenge
Nairobi beat 140 other cities around the world to become one of IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge winners in March. Launched in 2011, the IBM initiative is a three-year, 100-city US $50 million program and is IBM's single-largest philanthropic outreach.
Along with the deployment of a specialist team of expert consultants who focus on the city’s primary challenge, IBM provides special assistance to each winning city on the use of City Forward (http://www.cityforward.org), a free online site IBM created with public policy experts. Citizens, elected officials and urban planners can use the site to explore trends and statistics in a visual and accessible way, which can be adapted for the examination of any number of urban issues -- leading to better decision making.
“Nairobi demonstrated a desire to set an example for other municipalities, an eagerness to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, and a strong commitment to consider implementing recommendations the city felt would be the most feasible and beneficial to its residents." said Stanley S. Litow, IBM vice president of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs, and President of IBM's Foundation.
To find out more about IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grants, please visithttp://smartercitieschallenge.org/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sJ_3H0K3zo
For more information about IBM's philanthropic initiatives, please visit www.citizenibm.com.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Smart Cities News from IBM
Miami Dolphins Transform Sun Life Stadium Into an Entertainment Destination for Fans With IBM Solutions for Smarter Cities
IBM's Intelligent Operations Center Helps Miami Dolphins Enhance Game Day Experience
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ARMONK, N.Y. and MIAMI GARDENS. Fla. - 28 Feb 2012: Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced a collaboration with the Miami Dolphins to integrate analytics technology into Sun Life Stadium, enhancing the overall experience for fans of sports, music and media with IBM solutions designed for Smarter Cities.
To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please clickhttp://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/miami-dolphins-transform-sun-life-stadium-into-an-entertainment-destination-for-fans-with-ibm-solutions-for-smarter-cities-140680853.html
As a result, officials can gain real immediate insight into all stadium operations including visitor traffic, fan spending preferences and weather patterns, as well as social media sentiment, allowing them to predict and adjust accordingly based on real-time events.
Sun Life Stadium is a premier venue that hosts a variety of entertainment, media and business events, as well as marquee sports events including the Super Bowl and Orange Bowl. With millions of visitors in over 1.5 million square feet of space, coordinating 24,000 parking spaces and over 75,000 seats can lead to logistical and management challenges for the staff.
In collaboration with IBM business partner, Flagship Solutions Group, Sun Life Stadium is using IBM's Intelligent Operations Center (IOC) for Smarter Cities, supported on the IBM SmartCloud, to address these challenges while also engaging fans by delivering an unmatched experience at an event. Stadium staff can now offer a unique fan experience by enabling event specialists to more effectively manage visitor traffic, monitor inclement weather and analyze visitor spending habits on concessions, merchandise and dining services to better target the fans with premium products and services.
IBM's Intelligent Operations Center, which helps manage and view interconnected operations across a city or a stadium, is designed to drive sustainable economic growth by helping organizations deliver more innovative services that exceed their citizens or customers' expectations.
"Our challenge is to continue to make it exciting for people to come to our stadium as we compete with a constantly morphing entertainment industry that is increasingly interactive," said Tery Howard, Chief Technology Officer, Miami Dolphins, "This collaboration with IBM will provide analytics capabilities to collect insight into massive amounts of data we generate every second to look through the eyes of the fan and develop unmatched services to create meaningful experiences for our visitors."
IBM's IOC provides Sun Life Stadium a complete interconnected view of stadium activity, from weather alerts, to real-time security, to traffic flow into the stadium creating a seamless flow of visitors attending a game, to insights into whether visitors prefer a full dining experience or buy food at concession stands prior to a big game.
Real-time analysis also enables staff to predict consumer preferences and plan concession and merchandise needs for current or future events. For example, as concession and dining service sales contribute a significant amount of revenue for a stadium, anticipating a fan's preference for a full dining experience or purchasing food at a concession stand during an event is key to increasing business profitability. Advanced crowd control management with geospatial intelligence and audiovisual notifications, supports security personnel to immediately shift the flow of fans to minimize crowding.
Reducing inefficiencies and cost requires smarter technologies. With embedded intelligence in the physical assets of an organization, Sun Life Stadium can create a command center to manage not only their data center and IT design, but also their physical assets to manage diverse parts of the facility. Delivered as a cloud computing service, IBM's IOC enables better scalability and aggregates disparate back-end IT systems for a comprehensive view of the organization.
"Stadiums such as Sun Life are microcosms, akin to cities, with similar requirements for services such as water, energy, transportation, communication and public safety," said Gerry Mooney, GM, IBM Smarter Cities. "IBM is working around the world to make stadiums smarter by infusing intelligent automation that senses and acts to improve conditions including rerouting traffic, predicting overflows, ensuring public safety and preventing outages."
Enhanced Services for Today's Socially Savvy Mobile Fans
There is a growing number of sports and entertainment-related social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to engage fans. IBM is enabling Sun Life Stadium to compete in this increasingly interactive and social entertainment environment to not only engage with fans locally but with fans around the world. Sun Life Stadium is further enhancing the fan experience with new mobile applications for fans to access the latest game scores and stats, and to share images and view videos of games or other events no matter where they are. While still at home, or on the way to the stadium, fans will be able to also receive mobile alerts about the game or an event, including travel and parking instructions, information about the football teams or entertainers and targeted promotions for a concert.
For more information on IBM Smarter Cities, please visit www.ibm.com/smartercities.
For more information about cloud offerings from IBM, visit http://www.ibm.com/smartcloud. Follow us on Twitter at @ibmcloud.
For more information about Sun Life Stadium, visit http://www.sunlifestadium.com/.
For more information on how Flagship Solutions Group is providing comprehensive technology business solutions to clients in the Mid Market and Enterprise space, visit:http://flagshipsg.com/.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Airlines Emissions System May Be Adjusted in Europe
Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Airline Emissions System May Be Adjusted in Europe
By JAMES KANTER
BRUSSELS — The European Union could suspend parts of a new law requiring airlines to account for their greenhouse gas emissions if countries were to make clear progress this year toward establishing a global emissions control system, a senior official said Tuesday.
The comments, by Jos Delbeke, the director general for climate action at the European Commission, came the day after China announced that its carriers would be forbidden to pay any charges under the European emissions system without Beijing’s permission.
The comments were the clearest sign yet that Europeans were considering how to defuse a mounting conflict over the new emissions law with its most important trading partners.
The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires airlines to account for all emissions on flights using European airports. Its goal is to speed up the adoption of greener technologies at a time when air traffic, which represents about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, is growing much faster than gains in efficiency.
But Europe’s bold climate initiative also could push nations heavily reliant on air travel into a trade war because of the effect of the new law on flights outside of European airspace.
Mr. Delbeke said at a conference in Brussels that he could recommend “a conditional suspension” of parts of the system, in which polluters can buy and sell a limited quantity of permits, each representing a ton of carbon dioxide, by the end of the year if nations sped up adoption of an effective global system.
For that to happen, any global system would have (to) be better for climate protection than simply applying the European system that is already in force, Mr. Delbeke said. A global system also would have to treat all airlines similarly and to set emissions reduction targets for a near-term date like 2020 rather than midcentury.
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Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Airline Emissions System May Be Adjusted in Europe
By JAMES KANTER
BRUSSELS — The European Union could suspend parts of a new law requiring airlines to account for their greenhouse gas emissions if countries were to make clear progress this year toward establishing a global emissions control system, a senior official said Tuesday.
The comments, by Jos Delbeke, the director general for climate action at the European Commission, came the day after China announced that its carriers would be forbidden to pay any charges under the European emissions system without Beijing’s permission.
The comments were the clearest sign yet that Europeans were considering how to defuse a mounting conflict over the new emissions law with its most important trading partners.
The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires airlines to account for all emissions on flights using European airports. Its goal is to speed up the adoption of greener technologies at a time when air traffic, which represents about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, is growing much faster than gains in efficiency.
But Europe’s bold climate initiative also could push nations heavily reliant on air travel into a trade war because of the effect of the new law on flights outside of European airspace.
Mr. Delbeke said at a conference in Brussels that he could recommend “a conditional suspension” of parts of the system, in which polluters can buy and sell a limited quantity of permits, each representing a ton of carbon dioxide, by the end of the year if nations sped up adoption of an effective global system.
For that to happen, any global system would have (to) be better for climate protection than simply applying the European system that is already in force, Mr. Delbeke said. A global system also would have to treat all airlines similarly and to set emissions reduction targets for a near-term date like 2020 rather than midcentury.
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Tuesday, February 7, 2012
China Balking at EU Airline Emissions Charges
Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
E.U. Rebuffs China's Challenge to Airline Emission System
By JAMES KANTER
BRUSSELS — The European Commission said Monday that it would continue charging airlines for their greenhouse gas emissions, despite an announcement from China that its carriers would be forbidden to pay without its permission.
The E.U. program, which began Jan. 1, requires airlines to account for all emissions on flights using European airports and represents the Union’s boldest move to protect the environment.
“We’re not backing down in our legislation,” said Isaac Valero-Ladrón, a spokesman for the commission, the executive body of the European Union. “We’ll apply this to companies operating in Europe.”
Europe says its system is less costly than portrayed and would speed up the adoption of greener technologies at a time when air traffic, which represents about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, is growing much faster than gains in efficiency.
Earlier Monday, the Chinese air regulator effectively prohibited the country’s carriers from paying those charges or other fees, or increasing ticket prices in response to the E.U. system, without permission from the government.
The Chinese government said it was also considering unspecified measures to protect Chinese companies, something Europe can ill afford as it looks to China to help ease its debt crisis. European countries also want access to China’s fast-growing economy, including free-spending Chinese tourists who might not show up.
The intensifying dispute is another sign that European environmental regulations could lead to a trade war if governments start retaliating against carriers or products.
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