How smart are smart cities? : How can big data influence the planning of sustainable urban mobility?

The opportunities we have to move around the city, otherwise known as urban mobility, are intrinsically linked to both local industrial output as well as the physical possibilities of moving provided by the landscape of the urban environment. With the advent of automotive congestion solidifying itself as a reality as populations in urban centres continue to rise, the conspicuous question is: If we continue the way we’re going, what happens next? This thesis explores the influence of new technologies and the data that drives them on the mechanisms of planning mobility in urban centres, as well as the potential of adoption of innovative mobility solutions that address environmental concerns through insights that higher resolution data can provide. Statistical data sets have been used in the past in order to justify urban interventions and shifts in the established landscape, to collectively move citizens and their production towards spatial outcomes that hinge from directives of governance. More recently these shifts have been in a bid to address the overarching awareness of changes in the natural environment due to industrial (and therefore human) intervention. Moving into a future when there is a higher resolution of quantitative data harvested from abroad consumer base it becomes possible to enhance the city planning process by linking close to-real-time supply and demand. The central proposition of this thesis is that unique value propositions of mobility consumer markets should be driven by the needs of people, rather than the capabilities of technology and industry. There are obvious real-world ramifications for changes in the way citizens move around the city; the sizing of streets, noise levels of automobiles, access and egress points, the distance between points of interest and the capabilities of the fixed built infrastructure to accommodate change. This body of research focus’ on the connection enabled by putting people, rather than technical solutions at the centre of the sustainability debate