There has been much debate over whether or not Istanbul is a smart city. Considering the slow state of repairs on a major bridge, which caused traffic chaos and long jams, it is doubtful that Istanbul should be considered smart. Especially as, in an effort to rectify the traffic problems during the 3 month repair window, the governor urged all citizens to immediately take long vacations. Judging by that level of planning, Istanbul is not a smart city.
However, just because it is not currently a smart city, does not mean it won’t be one in future. NGO’s and Private companies have been debating how to make cities smart for some time, but as each city faces different challenges, it can be hard to make quick changes.
A project launched by CitySDK (Smart City Service Development Kit) and partners is a pan-European project that aims to create a service development kit to enable the creation of applications in the domains of mobility and tourism. Istanbul is one of the cities piloting the scheme, particularly the smart mobility sector. New components will be added to the existing web-based Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Travel Plan, including the Mobile PTA (personal travel assistant).
It is hoped that through this pilot scheme and others like it, more and more cities will evolve into smart, sustainable cities.
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