How Can Technology Make Your City Green?

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Do you want to make your city greener? According to Chris Taylor in a Mashable article, there are three technology-related things you can do to accomplish this. But which ones would actually work?

  1. Offer free WiFi on public transit: This makes a lot of sense to me. One great thing about riding the bus is that you aren’t driving, so you can do other things on it. And bus rides often take longer than car rides. So how can you get people to want to ride the bus? Offer WiFi. You can check your email, Facebook, or simply stream funny YouTube videos to keep you entertained on the ride.
  2. Encourage check-ins: I’m a bit skeptical about whether this will actually make a difference, but in theory, encouraging check-ins will encourage walking. People will want rewards, so they’ll walk to more stores in the area. Where I live, people would probably just drive. Still, it’s worth a try.
  3. Install more parking sensors: Parking sensors are used on phone applications to help drivers find a parking spot. And this is great—if you aren’t circling around looking for a parking space, you are probably driving more efficiently.In the Mashable article, Taylor also says that this point should be expanded and used to raise the prices of metered parking. Although there is truth to this, it is also a different issue than the bullet point it was listed under. If it costs more money to park, you will seek out other options. I rode the (free) bus to college instead of spending a couple of hundred dollars on a parking permit. But I also had the option to ride the bus—if I didn’t have that option, I would have just been complaining about high parking fees. (As an interesting note, my high school was the opposite. It cost a couple of hundred dollars a semester to ride the school bus, but parking off campus was free. Once I had my license, I drove.)

How do you think we can use technology to build a greener city?

You can read the Mashable post here.

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