One of the founding principles of Bluecity Technology is to have a positive impact on the world through the use of our technology. That is why it’s pretty amazing to have been chosen, along with Velodyne Lidar, as a recipient of the Smart 50 Awards.
Velodyne Lidar recently announced the launch of its Intelligent Infrastructure Solution, which uses Bluecity's intelligent solution to monitor traffic networks and public spaces to generate real-time data analytics. Our solution will improve traffic, advances sustainability and protects vulnerable road users, and it does all of this in all weather and lighting conditions. We love what our solution can do and so it was entered into the Smart 50 Award competition.
Smart 50 Awards happen every year, in partnership with Smart Cities Connect, the Smart Cities Connect Foundation and US Ignite. It recognizes smart city projects across the world, honouring the most innovative and transformative projects. Smart Cities Connect empowers smart cities at all stages of growth by accelerating the adoption of smart technology solutions. The organization works with technology to bring together a large collection of intelligent systems providers for energy, infrastructure, networks, data management, urban mobility and more. Hundreds of applications are submitted so we are happy to have been one of the recipients.
One of the reasons it means so much to us is that our management team has always spoken about Bluecity’s three purposes and how each of these three purposes is important to them in a personal way. This award recognizes all three of them.
The first is to improve traffic safety. We all have been touched in some way by a traffic accident whether it be a fatality, injury or simply damage to property. The ability to improve traffic safety and protect road users is an important aspect of our solution.
Being able to simply reduce traffic congestion and shorten the time people spend on the road is our second purpose. No one likes being stuck in traffic so being able to lessen traffic and improve mobility makes us happy. Before the pandemic, drivers in the most congested North American cities spent an average of 83 hours stuck in traffic. A study in the USA by INRIX calculated that in 2017, traffic jams cost the average driver $1,200 a year in wasted fuel and time.
All that time spent sitting in traffic brings us to our final purpose: lowering carbon emissions. We all know by now that road transport accounts for a large portion of air pollution in cities. If we can help in reducing the amount of time that cars have to be on the road, then we hope our solution will have helped to leave the world a better place.
We want to start on the right foot with three purposes that guide us and that our employees can embrace. The Smart 50 Award is the first, and hopefully not the last public recognition of what Bluecity represents.
Bluecity iQ is a traffic data platform that combines LiDAR technology and AI to provide real-time traffic data and analytics. Bluecity’s goal is to make streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists. We envision a world where traffic accidents are rare, driving to work is a pleasure and carbon emissions are reduced. Learn more about Bluecity iQ here.
