| | November 2019 19Over the next few decades, no part of urban living will change more dramatically than transportation. Self-driving cars, robotic delivery, and coordinated citywide traffic management will revolutionize how and when people travel. But leaders in the public and private sector do not need to wait for these grand solutions to act. The rapid decline in the price of digital sensors, nearly universal wireless connectivity, cloud computing, and gains in both the data and material sciences have paved the way for innovations that can meaningfully reduce traffic and congestion, improve safety, and cut costs right now. Urban designers, developers, carmakers, technology companies, and engineers should start investing in these available `Smart City' technologies to create smarter, safer streets and neighborhoods. Take potholes, for example, the great bane of urban commuters, cyclists, and city transportation officials. Potholes are not just annoying, they are expensive. The poor condition of streets ­ of which potholes are only a part - costs U.S. motorists $67 billion every year. Until now, potholes have been essentially impossible to manage: they form quickly, continuously, and are difficult to survey. Now for the first-time potential solutions are emerging that bring together citizens, engineers, chemists, and city governments. To fix a pothole, you first have to find it. In Boston, the city government worked with IDEO and Connected Bits to launch an app that motorists could download that would automatically generate a location report when the car (and the phone in the car) hit a pothole. The experiment found that the biggest challenge was actually sunken manholes and the city replaced the worst 1,250 offenders. Even better is to stop potholes before they start. Potholes typically form when water seeps into asphalt, freezes and expands, opening up larger cracks, which attract more water. Erik Schlangen, a materials scientist at Delft University, SMARTER TRANSPORTATION SOLUTIONS CAN START TODAYBy Nate Loewentheil, Senior Associate, Camber CreekNate LoewentheilVC TALKFor these new technologies to succeed, every actor in the transportation sector will need to commit to experimentation, collaboration, and innovation
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