City of San Rafael

The transportation industry is known for its acronyms. Smart city is one of these vast yet vague concepts left for the masses to define.  It is shocking to see the size of the gap between the creativity of the industry and the adoption by implementing agencies.  The Federal government ought to be commended for trying to kick-start the implementation of technology with programs, incentives, and funding. Despite a few successes here and there, the implementation is not yet strong enough to reward and encourage the growth of the smart city industry.

From a civil servant perspective, I share my personal experience with major inhibitors of success and the reasons why we continue to function light years behind technological advances in local government.

Understanding the Pain Points

Professionals are not encouraged to take risks with emerging technology. Being the keepers and decision-makers of public funds, there are many reasons why people don't take risks. The only way to get a public entity to buy into technology is to show a list of similar satisfied customers. This approach leaves all the risks to the vendors to invest in product development without the customer base. Very few vendors can sustain the scrutiny and the pace of public review and acceptance. Many agencies realize this handicap instilled in local government and adopted creativity in their mission statement and stated goals. Creativity remains popular when it succeeds and is condemned when it fails.

  ​It is time to start training smart city professionals to navigate through the bureaucratic systems of our country. It is time to let technology participate in our safety and mobility.   

Professionals are also not trained as change agents. Unless professionals break out of the traditional education systems, they are not formally trained to initiate and sustain change. A smart city is all about doing our jobs more systematically and efficiently. Program leaders race to run solo leaving behind essential supporting functions like training and maintenance. Expecting people to understand our intentions without proper engagement is so unrealistic. Leading all aspects of the organization to buy into smart city technology requires preparation and wise execution. Defining stakeholders early and keeping them engaged and interested with the proper recognition for their contributions is essential to success.

Along with this, professionals are not the best financial managers. The key to a successful smart city implementation is sustainability. There needs to be a careful assessment of the short-term and long-term availability of human and financial resources. The key to the sustainability issue is the ever-changing business model of the service providers. Like the computer industry, developers are leaning towards staying in business by leasing the software and using software upgrades to stay in business. This is a complete concept change from agencies owning hardware and software and relying on local staff for maintenance.  The key to many successful implementations is the understanding of the business model and negotiating with vendors as partners.

Professionals do not have a clear collective vision articulated in a plan. It used to be called a roadmap, but not anymore! How are we expected to reach our destination without a master plan? How many professionals in the transportation industry have the luxury of time to prepare a fully vetted smart city plan? Even when we have a plan that is more than one year old it most likely is obsolete. The solution is a very high-level plan defining why and what without the how and when. The details of implementation would be left to an active and engaged group of people with proper representation by all stakeholders to manage moving forward.

The smart city is here at the door knocking and many professionals don't dare to peek from the inside to see who is there. It is time to start training smart city professionals to navigate through the bureaucratic systems of our country. It is time to let technology participate in our safety and mobility.