IBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge Boston

BostonIBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge ReportTo convince various stakeholders to release and share theirown data, it is useful to emphasize the short-term benefits thatcan improve the daily operations of the current stakeholders.In particular, when data is shared and aggregated, the originaldata owner not only can provide data, but also consumeshared data, leading to improved operations. For this purpose,these recommendations include plausible data analytics andvisualization, such as detecting faulty sensors and discoveringtraffic patterns.Although various stakeholders have their own missions andmomentum, the benefits of unlocking, sharing and analyzingdata – as demonstrated in the prototype – offer motivationto overcome any organizational barriers.C. ProcessTo address these challenges, the IBM Smarter CitiesChallenge team gathered a comprehensive view of: The existing data that the City collects How that data is used today The current inhibitors to fully exploiting this data Other available data sources The City’s vision for transportation improvementsthat can contribute to environmental improvementsThe team also provided a roadmap for the City and arecommendation for benchmark comparisons to other“Smarter Cities” to facilitate continuous improvementstoward Boston’s climate and transportation goals.In addition, the team worked with the City to betterunderstand organizational inhibitors to unlocking, sharingand analyzing data. The team then applied its knowledgeand expertise in the areas of transportation optimization,data analytics, machine-to-machine communication, videoanalytics, physical security, environmental protection andmunicipal government to recommend actions for short-termand long-term benefits.6

3. Context forrecommendationsA. StakeholdersLike many municipal governments, the City of Bostonhas numerous departments organized by function andthe services they provide. This enables the City to focuson providing the services expected by citizens, but it canlead to “silos” and isolation that can present obstaclesto unlocking and sharing data. As has been illustratedin other Smarter Cities Challenge reports, sharing datais valuable for governments and citizens. In Boston,various stakeholders have their own missionsand perspectives.Key stakeholders for this Smarter Cities Challenge include: Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics: The missionof this department is to offer civic innovation focused ondelivering transformative City services to Boston’s residents1.From the perspective of the department, this mission canbest be accomplished by broad data sharing across all Citydepartments and extending to other agencies outside theCity. The New Urban Mechanics office values innovationand is eager to have a prototype to demonstrate to citizens. Boston Transportation Department: The mission of thisdepartment is to promote public safety, manage the City’stransportation network and enhance the quality of life forresidents1. Two areas of the Transportation departmentare key stakeholders for this Smarter Cities Challenge:–– Policy and Planning: This organization sets transportationpolicies for the City of Boston and has launched theBoston Complete Streets initiative2 with the goal ofdesigning and operating streets that are multi-modal,environmentally friendly and smart in their use of newtechnology. It would like shared data to make better,data-driven policy decisions. 7–– Traffic Management Center: This organizationoversees the expansion, operation and maintenance ofBoston’s Traffic Management Center. It receives inductiveloop data from 845 signalized intersections and video datafrom 120 traffic monitoring cameras1 which could bevaluable to other stakeholders, but it is not shared today.This organization uses an intentionally isolated networkbecause of the critical nature of traffic signal control. Oneresult of this isolation is that the inductive loop traffic datais not shared with other departments. In addition, thevideo data from traffic cameras is not recorded becausethe department does not have sufficient staff to manageand maintain stored video data. (For example, if the videodata is stored, then the staff would need to respond topublic records requests for this data.) Because of this, videocamera traffic data is not shared with other departments.Environmental and Energy Services Cabinet:This department is responsible for carrying out the Mayor’sClimate Action Plan6 which was developed after a year-longcollaborative process with leaders throughout the community.The City of Boston’s goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissionsby 25 percent by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050. To achievethese goals, the department is pursuing green buildings andtransportation improvements. The transportation policiesand data are largely within the purview of the Transportationdepartment, although transportation directly affects theEnvironmental and Energy Services Cabinet. It wishes todetermine its baseline measurements and the improvementsachieved over time.Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT):DoIT is the City’s enterprise technology organization andfocuses on connecting the city, engaging and empoweringcitizens, improving business processes, working collaborativelyand continuously innovating1. The DoIT staff has had recentsuccesses in connecting various departments, and they aremotivated to unlock, share and analyze transportation data,which is an area that has not been interconnected. Theymanage the platforms that deliver online citizen services,including the geographic information system (GIS) platformthat was used in the prototype built during this SmarterCities Challenge engagement. They are in the process ofbuilding a federated video system that could integrate cameradata from silos into a shared repository to benefit manygovernment organizations and the citizens of Boston.

BostonIBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge Report Citizens: Although the consumers of transportation datainclude various City departments, researchers and practitioners,the ultimate consumers and beneficiaries of unlocked, sharedand analyzed transportation data will be the residents ofBoston. Timely, local, geographically oriented, accurate,comparable transportation information will empower citizensto make appropriate transportation choices and improve theirquality of life.The City of Boston has a wealth of instrumentation, butmany opportunities exist for interconnection among agenciesand departments, so that data which is already is collectedcan be used to generate useful information for all parties.For example, the Traffic Management Center receives trafficcount information from inductive loops and video cameras,but this data is not shared with other departments that couldfind value in it. Other departments, such as police, librariesand schools, also have video cameras, but the information is notshared. Data from manual traffic counts occurs on a relativelylow-frequency basis (as compared to automated data sources),and typically when new development projects are proposed,but the data often is captured in the form of printed (andoccasionally electronic) reports. In either case, the data isintended for human consumption, not digital processing.B. Current stateThe City of Boston has a significant amount of instrumentationrelated to transportation and traffic, including inductive loops,manually gathered traffic counts, video cameras, GPS and others.In addition, other agencies, including the State of Massachusettsand the Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS), a partof the regional Metropolitan Planning Organization, haveother transportation-related data that is relevant to the Cityof Boston, such as pneumatic tube traffic counts and masstransit data.“We want to create and set a standard thatis immediately usable and transferable toother cities.”The Mayor’s Climate Action Plan6 includes goals to reduceCO2 emissions and provide information for residents andcommuters to make choices about transportation. TheMayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics wants to providepractitioners, researchers and residents with more timely,local, geographically oriented, accurate, comparableinformation about transportation conditions in Boston.— Chris Osgood, Co-Chair, Mayor’s Office of New Urban MechanicsThis leads to the challenge of unlocking, sharing and analyzingdata so that the instrumentation that exists can be interconnectedand contribute to intelligent traffic solutions. This, in turn,leads to environmental and economic benefits. Hence, theefforts to unlock, share and analyze existing traffic data aresignificant to the City’s environmental goals.The City of Boston has established aggressive environmentalgoals, including a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gasemissions by 2020. Reducing Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)is an important action to reach this goal, yet the City currentlyhas no way to analyze VMT.C. PrototypeThe City requested a demonstrable prototype to illustrate thepotential of the recommended actions. The IBM team partneredwith Boston University and the City’s DoIT to build a citizenfacing prototype to demonstrate the capabilities that can beenabled through implementation of the team’s recommendations.“We don’t have a standard way equallyrepresent data on all modes of travel.We hope that one of the outcomes is a newstandard to collect and use data.”— Vineet Gupta, Director of Policy and Planning,Boston Transportation Department8

BostonIBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge ReportThis prototype was completed within the three-weekengagement period and included an initial implementationof a common data model, population of an aggregatedtraffic count database with more than one million recordsand several visualizations of analyzed data. Figure 1 providesan overview of the prototype.Because this Smarter Cities Challenge engagement was onlythree weeks in duration — with the first week spent primarilyin gathering details about the City’s current state, requirementsand desires — incorporating a prototype required a veryaggressive schedule. To stay on schedule, the scope of theprototype initially was limited to demonstrating how to unlock,share and visualize the inductive loop and manual count datathat is not accessible today (sample data of both types existedfor a few intersections). As the prototype progressed, the teamalso incorporated pneumatic tube counts and demonstratedadditional analytics and visualization techniques.Data consumersIP connectionDepartment ofInnovation andTechnology serverWeb portal/GIS interfaceAnalytics and visualizationNew standard model common databaseAggregation tableLoop count tableTube count tableManual count fic Management CenterTube countPDF fileManual countPDF fileCentral TransportationPlanning StaffFigure 1Prototype platform9Boston TransportationDepartment

BostonIBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge ReportPneumatic tube counts can also be used to visualize the hourlychanges of traffic on average weekdays. This visualizationhelps identify how the traffic flows throughout the day.[Re: prototype]: “ a new, fresh, original,engaging, delightful application that we canshow citizens.”The prototype was instrumental in demonstrating the shortterm value that can be achieved from unlocking, sharing andanalyzing existing data and it provided a sound basis for thefuture vision.— Chris Osgood, Co-Chair, Mayor’s Office of New Urban MechanicsD. University partnershipThe prototype demonstrated what could be accomplishedwith currently available data: inductive loop counts, pneumatictube counts and manual counts. Although data records forinductive loops and pneumatic tubes were collected atdifferent intervals, the team could see similarities betweentraffic flows recorded by inductive loops at an intersectionwith those recorded on nearby roads by pneumatic tubes.This demonstrates the possibility of increasing data accuracyby combining various types of sensor data.Another novel aspect of this Smarter Cities Challengewas a formal university partnership. The City of Boston’sproposal included Boston University as a participant in theengagement. This added some complexity to the project,but it offered benefits that included the input and ideas ofBoston University professors and PhD candidate studentswho contributed to the project. In particular, PhD candidate(Geography, specializing in environmental issues) ConorGately served as the full-time project manager for BostonUniversity during the engagement. All Boston Universityparticipants are listed in Appendix A.Using data analytics, the team extracted six traffic patternsfrom existing pneumatic tube count data. Those patternsare: commuting, going-home, early-bird, night-owl, anomalyand busy streets. Commuting streets have peak hours in themorning and afternoon. Going-home streets peak in theafternoon, whereas early-bird streets peak in the morning.Night-owl streets have more traffic at night than during therest of the day. Anomaly streets have a traffic burst duringa short interval (possibly caused by false sensor data). Busystreets have heavy traffic from the morning to late afternoon.E. Overview of recommendationsThe potential scope of an overall solution is broad, involvingother agencies beyond the City of Boston. The scope of thisparticular Smarter Cities Challenge focuses on recommendationsabout the use of manual traffic count data and inductive loopdata for near-term actions, because these data sources aremost accessible from the existing infrastructure and presenta solid foundation for analytics and visualization. The engagementscope also includes strategic recommendations about nextsteps toward longer-term solutions, especially in the areaof video camera data.10

BostonIBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge Report4. Future visionThe IBM Smarter Cities Challenge team’s recommendationsare categorized according to the three main themes ofunlocking, sharing and analyzing transportation data, plusa fourth theme of future vision. They address several topics,including environmental actions, privacy, benchmarkingand long-term vision.a) Consolidate video cameras that are isolated indepartmental “silos” by establishing a federated videoinfrastructure managed by DoIT, considering cameranetwork design, servers, storage, platforms and standards.b) Create a comprehensive infrastructure for a smarter trafficcontrol system that collects data from multiple sources.c) Create a framework that incorporates pedestrian andbicycle counts with motor vehicle counts.d) Use multiple data sources to validate other data sources.e) Create an architecture and long-term roadmap to graduallyestablish the entire infrastructure with state-of-the-arttechnologies for networks, servers, storage, sensors andvideo cameras. The roadmap should include: Technology migration plans that include using one formof sensor to augment and validate other forms of sensors Gradually replacing older traffic measurement and controltechnologies with more efficient, accurate technologies,such as IP and wireless-based systems, GPS andvideo analytics Building a network infrastructure with high-bandwidthfiber optic connections and a well-designed topology toensure flexibility and scalability for aggregated traffic datafrom multiple sources (including video), thus enablinga smarter traffic control system for real-time analyticsand visualization Collaboration with universities and businesses to improvetraffic data analytics and optimization to fully utilizemulti-modal data that is collected from various sourcesand improve traffic control and associated services tomake Boston a Smarter City1. Unlocking dataa) Adopt a common data model that supports multiple typesof input data.b) Align data with recognized standards.c) Aggregate data from multiple sources.d) Prescribe manual traffic count format and deliverablesto consultants.e) Enable online submission of manual traffic count data.2. Sharing dataa) Institute an automated process to transfer inductive loop trafficcount data from the Traffic Management Center to DoITto enable online access to this data by multiple consumers.b) Enable online access to manual traffic count data that alreadyexists (make this data accessible to multiple consumers).c) Ensure that reasonable security and privacy policies,procedures and controls are incorporated in data sharing,especially for personally identifiable information.3. Analyzing dataa) Enable easy online access to, and visualization of, importanttransportation data for residents of Boston in multiple waysthrough multiple channels.b) Establish a smarter traffic control infrastructure that usesexisting and new data sources to enable new applications thatenable multiple parties to offer value to multiple consumers.c) Provide traffic data analytics for extracting, transforming,and loading traffic data to verify the accuracy of aggregatedtraffic sensor data and to provide various reports that areuseful for the city’s operation.d) Provide CO2 emission estimates based on traffic data analytics.e) Provide visualization to view the data generated by thevarious types of data analytics, categorized into three topics:as-is, analytical and what-if.f) Perform benchmarks with other cities, and share best practices.11

BostonIBM’s Smarter Cities Challenge ReportF. RoadmapAn expected outcome of this roadmap is increasedconsumer value for researchers, government, businessesand, especially, citizens.The roadmap in Figure 2 represents the evolution of theecosystem for transportation solutions for the City ofBoston, beginning with short-term recommendations andprogressing to the longer-term forward-thinking vision.G. Goals and objectivesThis roadmap illustrates evolutionary progression:1. Using “unlocked” data, the common data model offersa path toward alignment with recognized standards.2. Sharing data advances the focus from individual datasources to the consolidated data and application platform.3. Data analysis enables new intelligent applicationsand visualizations.4. The forward-thinking future vision enables new ideasto be realized, and advanced analytics and applicationsto be implemented, leading toward a smarter trafficmanagement system in Boston.Table 1 illustrates the goals and objectives of this SmarterCities Challenge from a technological perspective. Withinthe domain of transportation and the scope of

A. The Smarter Cities Challenge In 2010, IBM Corporate Citizenship launched the Smarter Cities Challenge to help 100 cities around the world over a three-year period become smarter through grants of IBM talent. Boston, Massachusetts, was selected through a competitive process as one of 33 cities to be awarded a Smarter Cities Challenge grant in .