Programming the Chaos out of Megacities
Among IBM's many new Smarter Planet initiatives is an effort to straighten out the knots that are Mexico City's roads and streets. LA Times Mexico City bureau chief Hector Tobar says some 29 million people commute in Mexico City every day, in 6 million-odd vehicles. IBM is working with the city's transport and sustainability managers to find a software and systems fix to the problem, knowing that existing infrastructure can't just be dug up and relaid.
It's an ambitious effort, and surely anything that makes a small improvement is welcomed, as the city and country leaks productivity and economic benefit for every one of its citizens sit smoldering in the city's massive gridlock. It does raise the question, however, of whether or not one can program the chaos out of a megacity by making the buses, traffic lights and other systems run more efficiently. Mexico City's drivers, like those in many other cities (ahem New York, LA, Paris), have been trained to this chaos and have learned to live by its lack of rules. This complex system of behaviors has to be addressed alongside fixing the mechanical flow of the objects within the city.
(via Smarter Planet and Horizonwatching)
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