The Smart City: A New Era on the Horizon

In 2016, an article appeared in the Boston Globe with a headline that city drivers everywhere have dreamed of saying: "Bye-bye traffic lights." 1 No, Boston had not suddenly removed every traffic light in the city. But such a change appeared to be around the corner: researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had devised new "intelligent intersections" 2 that would enable oncoming streams of self-driving cars to merge seamlessly and travel through intersections without stopping. 3 Once this new technology was deployed, sitting in traffic would be a relic of the past. Simulated demonstrations of these futuristic streets seemed to augur the dawn of a new era, in which advanced technology would alleviate issues that had long plagued cities.