<![CDATA[IPaT Executive Director Participates in Congressional Briefing on Intelligent Infrastructure Research]]> 27980 On January 30, Elizabeth Mynatt, distinguished professor and executive director of the Institute for People and Technology at Georgia Tech, co-organized and presented at a U.S. congressional briefing on intelligent infrastructure in Washington, D.C. The Computing Research Association sponsored the briefing, along with honorary co-hosts Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, and Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), ranking member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

As the closing speaker, Mynatt described three key gaps that could prevent communities from reaping the economic rewards of infrastructure investments: productive access to broadband capabilities, innovative systems for effective training and job creation, and forward-looking data platforms and policies to spur open innovation. Dan Lopresti, professor and chair of the computer science and engineering department at Lehigh University, moderated the panel. Other panelists included:

Henning Schulzrinne, professor of computer science at Columbia University and former chief technology officer for the Federal Communications Commission, who discussed the need for resiliency and adaptability and the ability of the intelligent infrastructure to cope with extreme or unexpected circumstances.

Matthew Wansley, general counsel of nuTonomy, a startup focused on developing technologies for driverless vehicles. He talked about the need for robustness and interoperability and bringing together the data from large numbers of independent sensing systems to achieve shared common goals in realizing intelligent transportation systems.

Nadya Bliss, director of the Global Security Initiative at Arizona State University, who explained the need for security and trustworthiness. She said the transition to intelligent infrastructure allows us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build in security and reliability from the start.

Read more about the briefing on the Computing Research Association's website.

]]> Alyson Key 1 1562954394 2019-07-12 17:59:54 1570459517 2019-10-07 14:45:17 0 0 news On January 30, Elizabeth Mynatt, distinguished professor and executive director of the Institute for People and Technology at Georgia Tech, co-organized and presented at a U.S. congressional briefing on intelligent infrastructure in Washington, D.C.

]]> 2018-01-31T00:00:00-05:00 2018-01-31T00:00:00-05:00 2018-01-31 00:00:00 Alyson Powell

Marketing Communications Manager

Institute for People and Technology

]]> 623305 623305 image <![CDATA[Congressional Briefing on Intelligent Infrastructure]]> image/png 1562954181 2019-07-12 17:56:21 1562954181 2019-07-12 17:56:21 <![CDATA[Announcing: The Georgia Smart Communities Challenge]]> 27980 The Georgia Institute of Technology and its partners are excited to announce the launch of the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge (“Georgia Smart”), open to all communities in Georgia. Local Georgia governments of any size—cities, counties, or consolidated city-county governments—will lead selected teams. Georgia Smart will provide seed funding and access to technical assistance, expert advice, and a network of peers. A Georgia Tech researcher will assist and advise each team and conduct research in support of the community’s needs and goals.

Georgia Smart is the first program of its kind in the United States, bringing together an unprecedented coalition of university, industry, and public sector partners to support local governments in adopting cutting-edge technologies in their communities. The program is also unique in that it extends beyond large cities to smaller communities whose voices have not been as prominent in smart community development and who may not have access to technology resources.

“We’ve spent the past year in workshops and dialogue with local governments across Georgia to better understand their challenges and priorities. From these communications, we developed a program that is sensitive to the local context while fast-tracking smart communities. We aim to create more models for smart development that can be shared and applied across the state and beyond,” said Debra Lam, managing director, Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation at Georgia Tech.

Georgia Smart is seeking proposals in the areas of smart mobility and smart resilience. Each of the four winning teams will receive direct grant funding of up to $50,000, as well as additional funds for research and technical assistance with a required local match. Georgia Tech and its partners will then work with the winning teams throughout the year on implementing their proposals, creating four testbeds of smart community development.

The program is organized by the Georgia Institute of Technology in partnership with Georgia Power (lead sponsor), Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC, funding sponsor), Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), Georgia Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Centers for Innovation, Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA), Metro Atlanta Chamber, and Technology Association of Georgia (TAG).

“Smart community opportunities can help local governments and the whole region address issues such as social justice, mobility, economic development, and many other important areas,” said Doug Hooker, executive director, Atlanta Regional Commission. “Community initiatives can be more successful through collaborative, people-focused approaches, and those qualities are what make the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge an important effort for the region.”

“The Georgia Smart Communities Challenge is a great team effort that utilizes state expertise, technology and leadership to help communities compete in economic development,” said Pat Wilson, commissioner, Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Through our Centers of Innovation, we are able to work alongside many of our local and statewide economic development partners to make Georgia even more competitive and we believe that this challenge will certainly do just that.”

“Creating a better connected Georgia requires research and collaboration from many stakeholders across every layer of the public and private sector,” said Christine Primmer, strategic manager, Georgia Power Smart Cities initiative. “We are proud to be a leading partner in the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge as one component of our larger commitment to improving every community we serve while also building the future of energy with a more reliable and adaptive power grid.”

"TAG is proud to be supporting this great effort," said Larry K. Williams, president and CEO, Technology Association of Georgia. "This vital initiative significantly expands our state's ability to bring smart connectivity and leading-edge technologies to all of our communities—from urban hubs to neighborhoods to rural communities, creating next-generation links that can transform the way companies do business from any location and revolutionize the quality of life for all residents."

"The Smart Communities Challenge is a great way for communities of all sizes to start thinking about how they leverage their public, private, and non-profit assets towards preparing for the future,” said Chris Clark, CEO, Georgia Chamber. “Businesses are moving at a rapid pace and our public institutions can now use these same technologies to improve quality of life for citizens in every part of Georgia. We're excited to see the types of innovative ideas and initiatives that will come out of this challenge."

"The Georgia Municipal Association is excited about this opportunity for Georgia's cities to participate in the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge,” said Larry Hanson, executive director, Georgia Municipal Association. “It is imperative cities integrate data and technology solutions to tackle the challenges they face. The seed funding, technical assistance, and access to expert advice will lay the groundwork for the creation of smart communities across the state."

“ACCG is a proud supporter of the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge and encourages county governments to participate in the initiative,” said Dave Wills, interim executive director, Association County Commissioners of Georgia. “This is an excellent opportunity for local governments to leverage funding and technical assistance to ignite smart community technology across the state.”

“The Metro Atlanta Chamber is proud to support Georgia Tech and the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge and thrilled to be one of the partners supporting this initiative,” said David Hartnett, Chief Economic Development Officer, Metro Atlanta Chamber. “We are honored to help bring smart city technologies to the rural areas of Georgia, helping to bridge the gap between cities and government and helping link local governments with cutting-edge university research.”

For more information about the Georgia Smart Communities Challenge, including how to become a partner or submit a proposal, visit the Georgia Smart website.

]]> Alyson Key 1 1562953917 2019-07-12 17:51:57 1570459474 2019-10-07 14:44:34 0 0 news The first statewide program to support local governments across Georgia with seed funding, technical assistance, and more as they plan and activate smart development.

]]> 2018-02-22T00:00:00-05:00 2018-02-22T00:00:00-05:00 2018-02-22 00:00:00 Alyson Powell

Marketing Communications Manager

Institute for People and Technology

]]> 609527 609527 image <![CDATA[Georgia Smart Communities Challenge]]> image/jpeg 1533828250 2018-08-09 15:24:10 1533828250 2018-08-09 15:24:10 <![CDATA[Transitions in Regional Economic Development]]> 27980 The book, Transitions in Regional Economic Development, discusses “the uncertainties associated with the stalling of hyper-globalization and asks whether this creates opportunities for resurgent regional economies driven by local capabilities, resource efficiencies, and domestic production.”

In the book, the editors of Regional Studies—a leading international journal—and authors from universities around the world explore the shift in global power toward economies in the East, the impact of immigration on economies, and the consequences of urbanization. The book celebrates the 50th anniversary of Regional Studies, for which Jennifer Clark is an editor.

In an interview with IPaT, Clark reflects on the evolution of the field, and how the bid for Amazon’s new headquarters highlights an important economic development policy question for cities.

Editor’s note: This interview is lightly edited.

IPaT: What are some of the changes occurring in the development of cities and regions that the book outlines?

Jennifer Clark: The book highlights some of the big questions in regional policy and regional economic development like industrial transformation. The shift from manufacturing economies into service-based economies. What does that mean for jobs? What does that mean for wages and income? What does that mean for policy? How do you create economic development policies that support the ability of communities to support themselves? What kind of industries do you invest in?

If you think about something like the competition for the new Amazon headquarters, that sort of policy question is central here. Do you create subsidies to attract firms, or do you invest in place? For academics in regional economic development, all of the evidence that we have empirically shows that subsidies do not pay off.

IPaT: Why is that?

JC: The cities and regions which are creating economic development packages pay too high a price to firms in terms of concessions. It's also because cities undercut each other, which is part of what's going on with the Amazon bid right now. You get into a bidding war rather than an empirical analysis of what the cost-benefit analysis would be for what you're trying to attract. But it's also because firms often don't do what they say they're going to do, and there is no policy mechanism to hold them to it. So when firms say they'll bring 5,000 jobs, what ends up happening is they bring 2,500 jobs in the end. There are policy proposals, and there are people, including some of my colleagues, who advocate for things like clawback policies so that you get your subsidy back if the firm doesn't meet the promises that they make.

One of the most significant debates in economic development policy is the question of, would you be better off if you took that, say, $500 million and invested it in your schools, your K-12 system, in your transportation system? What if you just take $500 million, and instead of putting in a tax subsidy to an individual firm you put it into your universities for more Hope Scholarships? Wouldn't the companies still come because they want the talent? And what you did is you invested in your people as the attraction. So more and more what we're seeing is that investments in human capital pay off more than the investments in individual firms.

IPaT: The book also examines immigration from a European perspective and whether, according to the book’s description, immigrants “displace local workers and depress wages, or bring benefits in the form of know-how, new technology and investment.”

JC: Just like in the U.S., in the broader debate about cities and regions, immigration is a huge hot-button issue. In the U.K. there’s Brexit, in addition to the recession and what that means for the industrial composition of cities and regions. The question of who's doing the work, who's living in the cities and regions is a big question, as well as how you think about immigration policy from an economic perspective rather than a social, hot-button issue perspective.

In our research here in the U.S., we are consistently finding that 25 percent of the economy is people who are working in the formal economy and are working in jobs that don't have specific certifications and degrees. It's cooks; it's janitors, it's people who are part of what we are calling “the essential economy.” Those are the kinds of jobs that people who are immigrants and migrants often get, certainly when they first come because they usually don't have certifications, or whatever certifications they have are not recognized. If you do the economic analysis, it's a labor supply, labor demand question. If you decrease the labor supply by having more restrictive immigration policies, you have to be interested in paying a lot more for the work performed in that 25 percent in the essential economy as well as in specialized high-skilled occupations where immigrants are well represented.  This is what businesses and consumers are already experiencing in the U.K.

IPaT: How has the field of regional studies evolved over the past 50 years?

JC: Regional studies is an interdisciplinary field that includes economic geographers, urban planners, business, and management fields. We also have some people from economics and sociology, so it's a really broad field. The distinction, I think, is the focus on space; the idea that space is a variable in the analysis of economic activity and in the development of industrial strategies and public policy. The field is very prominent field internationally because it is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding place and the economy. It's very policy-influential because a lot of policymakers and politicians want to know, how is it that we're going to create jobs, create innovation? How do we move technology into the marketplace? The way I explain it is that economic geographers study the spatial distribution of the economy. Simply put, we know where money is made and where to make money.

]]> Alyson Key 1 1562953707 2019-07-12 17:48:27 1570459442 2019-10-07 14:44:02 0 0 news Jennifer Clark, associate professor of public policy at Georgia Tech, co-edits a new book on significant changes happening in the development of cities and regions.

]]> 2018-02-27T00:00:00-05:00 2018-02-27T00:00:00-05:00 2018-02-27 00:00:00 Alyson Powell

Marketing Communications Manager

Institute for People and Technology

]]> 583031 583031 image <![CDATA[Jennifer Clark]]> image/jpeg 1477348569 2016-10-24 22:36:09 1477348569 2016-10-24 22:36:09 <![CDATA[Latest Mayors' Leadership Forum Focuses on Smart Community Planning]]> 27980 For a second time, Georgia Tech and the Georgia Municipal Association hosted the Georgia Mayors' Leadership Forum for Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation. While the first forum in November focused on understanding the basics of smart cities, the latest meeting asked the question: Now what?

Debra Lam, managing director for Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation at Georgia Tech, encouraged participants to ask themselves, “How do I apply [smart city practices] to my city? How do I empower my team to move forward?”

During his welcome address, Steve Swant, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for Administration and Finance called smart city initiatives a challenging, yet collaborative effort at Georgia Tech. “Georgia Tech leads the infusion of technology in day-to-day operations because we have a desire and passion. Creating the next is what we strive to do.”

Mayors, Chief Information Officers, and other officials from cities and counties across Georgia learned about practical tools to help them translate smart city findings into their day-to-day operations.

Dmitri Mavris, director of the Aerospace Systems Design Laboratory (ASDL), gave an overview of the Smart Campus Project, including a demonstration of FORESIGHT—a multilayered, interactive campus map that shows Georgia Tech as a “mini city” and highlights energy consumption, the age of buildings, and other useful data. Mavris said security is also a key component. “We’re trying to figure out how to get ahead of the system and identify vulnerabilities.”

Later in the day, forum attendees brainstormed how they could use the tool to support their own needs. They also talked about current smart initiatives in their communities – from street cameras and intelligent traffic lights to monitoring devices for flooding and bike trail traffic. Representatives from several Georgia cities and counties participated, including Athens-Clarke County, City of Albany, Columbus Consolidated Government, City of Gainsville, Macon-Bibb County, City of Savannah, and City of Warner Robins.

The morning wrapped up with 5-minute “Ignite Talks” on resilience efforts led by Georgia Tech. Kim Cobb, ADVANCE Professor, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, discussed a new Institute-wide initiative—the Global Change Program, which creates opportunities for Georgia Tech faculty, students, and staff to design and implement solutions to problems at the intersection of environmental, social, and economic systems. While Mary Hallisey, senior director planning & operations, Strategic Energy Institute, outlined the Georgia Coastal and Marine Planner (GCAMP), a geospatial gateway to Georgia-specific maps, data, and resources relevant to coastal and marine planning.

After lunch, Chief Rob Connolly of the Georgia Tech Police Department led a lively discussion about the tools GTPD uses on campus, including street cameras, license plate recognition cameras, and a mobile surveillance unit called SkyCop. When asked about privacy concerns with 1,700 cameras across campus, Chief Connolly emphasized the importance of “using them wisely” and transparency with community partners.

]]> Alyson Key 1 1562951178 2019-07-12 17:06:18 1570459390 2019-10-07 14:43:10 0 0 news For a second time, Georgia Tech and the Georgia Municipal Association hosted the Georgia Mayors' Leadership Forum for Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation.

]]> 2018-04-16T00:00:00-04:00 2018-04-16T00:00:00-04:00 2018-04-16 00:00:00 Alyson Powell

Marketing Communications Manager

Institute for People and Technology

]]> 623297 623298 623296 623295 623297 image <![CDATA[Mayors' Leadership Forum]]> image/jpeg 1562950905 2019-07-12 17:01:45 1562950905 2019-07-12 17:01:45 623298 image <![CDATA[Mayors' Leadership Forum]]> image/jpeg 1562950962 2019-07-12 17:02:42 1562950962 2019-07-12 17:02:42 623296 image <![CDATA[Mayors' Leadership Forum]]> image/jpeg 1562950856 2019-07-12 17:00:56 1562950856 2019-07-12 17:00:56 623295 image <![CDATA[Mayors' Leadership Forum]]> image/jpeg 1562950772 2019-07-12 16:59:32 1562950798 2019-07-12 16:59:58 <![CDATA[Georgia Smart Hosts Fall Workshop]]> 27980 On Thursday, September 6th, 2018, Georgia Smart hosted over 85+ local government representatives, academic researchers, and industry representatives at the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center for their Fall GA Smart Workshop. In June, GA Smart announced its inaugural four winning community teams. With Georgia Tech’s support of $50,000 in seed funding, networking opportunities, and access to additional research teams, the program offers a first-of-its-kind opportunity for communities to envision, explore, and plan for their “smart” future. The workshop was the first opportunity for the four teams to discuss their winning proposals.

Chaouki Abdallah, Executive Vice President for Research at Georgia Tech provided the introduction and welcome. Afterwards, keynote speaker, ESRI’s Urban Analytics Lead, Amen Ra Mashariki, discussed using urban analytics to move towards a smarter city remarking that a smart city is a one that uses data intelligently. His work on the New York City’s cooling towers Legionnaires' disease bacteria outbreak in 2015 highlighted that data is crucial for “government to learn from citizens.”

Workshop attendees were eager to hear from the four winning communities. First up was Chatham County’s team led by CEMA Coordinator, Randall Matthews and Georgia Tech’s Kim Cobb and Russ Clark who discussed how hurricanes Matthew and Irma highlighted the need for smart sea level tools for emergency planning and response. The City of Chamblee’s team led by Special Projects Manager Rebecca Keefer and Georgia Tech School of Architecture Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones addressed the future of shared autonomous vehicles. From the City of Albany, Chief Information Officer Steven Carter and Georgia Tech Assistant Professor of Georgia Tech School of Public Policy, Omar Isaac Asensio, discussed their winning proposal on housing data analytics and visualization. Lastly, Gwinnett County’s Deputy Director for Traffic Engineering at Department of Transportation, Tom Sever, and Georgia Tech Senior Research Engineer, Angshman Guin, examined the role of connected vehicles and traffic management.

The morning session also included a panel discussion on Smart Communities and Equity. Panelists included Faye DiMassimo, Specialist Leader of Deloitte Consulting; Marilyn Brown, Regents Professor of School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech; Odetta MacLeish-White, Managing Director of Transformation Alliance; Paul Vranicar, Chief Policy Officer of Atlanta Housing Authority; and moderator Stan Vangilder, Program Manager of Southern Company. The panelists outlined the role of equity when carrying out smart city projects.

Christopher Le Dantec, Associate Professor in the Digital Media Program at Georgia Tech, facilitated the afternoon session, leading the four winning communities in a three-part exercise on stakeholder maps, barriers and strategies, and engagement plans.

Georgia Smart is organized by the Georgia Institute of Technology in partnership with Georgia Power, Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), Association County Commissioners of Georgia (ACCG), Georgia Municipal Association (GMA), Georgia Centers for Innovation, Georgia Department of Community Affairs (DCA), Metro Atlanta Chamber, Georgia Chamber, Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), and the Global City Team Challenge.

For more information, please refer to the GA Smart website at: http://smartcities.gatech.edu/georgia-smart

]]> Alyson Key 1 1562875560 2019-07-11 20:06:00 1570459355 2019-10-07 14:42:35 0 0 news On Thursday, September 6th, 2018, Georgia Smart hosted over 85+ local government representatives, academic researchers, and industry representatives at the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center for their Fall GA Smart Workshop.

]]> 2018-09-06T00:00:00-04:00 2018-09-06T00:00:00-04:00 2018-09-06 00:00:00 623251 623252 623251 image <![CDATA[Georgia Smart Fall Workshop]]> image/png 1562875339 2019-07-11 20:02:19 1562875339 2019-07-11 20:02:19 623252 image <![CDATA[Georgia Smart Fall Workshop]]> image/png 1562875387 2019-07-11 20:03:07 1562875387 2019-07-11 20:03:07 <![CDATA[One Year Later: North Avenue Smart Corridor]]> 27980 Just over a year ago in September 2017, the City of Atlanta and Georgia Tech launched the North Avenue Smart Corridor. It’s the most connected corridor in Georgia and a living laboratory for traffic management through technology. The Renew Atlanta infrastructure bond is funding the approximately $3-million project and over the past year, the corridor has seen significant technology changes.

High definition video cameras mounted at approximately 20 intersections detect how many cars are on the road, how fast they’re going, and the number of occupants. Thermal cameras recognize pedestrians and give them priority over vehicles to safely cross intersections. And, a smartphone app connects pedestrians, motorists, and cyclists to smart city technology and each other, sending out safety warnings about impending red lights and other dangerous traffic situations.

According to Renew Atlanta, the technology is paying off; the corridor—stretching from Northside Drive to Freedom Parkway—has seen improved travel times and a 25-percent reduction in vehicle crashes. “Ultimately it’s improved safety for everyone,” said Keary Lord, deputy program manager, Renew Atlanta Bond and TSPLOST Programs. “When you’re able to reduce crashes, you’re certainly going to reduce injuries and fatalities at the same time. So, it’s the safety benefit that’s the most significant.”

Georgia Tech is the City’s official research partner on the North Avenue project. Michael Hunter, associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is leading Georgia Tech’s work on North Avenue and is developing a real-time model of the corridor. Sensors along the corridor connect to the model and send operation and vehicle location information to researchers and city officials. The goal: improve signal timing and energy use, and reduce emissions. “One of the major concepts of smart cities is this idea of turning data into actionable information. How do I take data and do something useful with it?” said Hunter.

Hunter and his colleagues have spent the past nine months building the model and getting all of the data streams to work together consistently. They’re now calibrating a working version of the model and preparing to integrate it into the corridor, taking into account varying traffic conditions. “You want to be able to respond dynamically and in real-time to traffic conditions,” said Hunter. “Monday is not the same as Tuesday is not the same as Wednesday.”

The next phase of the project is the introduction of an autonomous shuttle in early 2019 which will run a route along North Avenue and Ponce de Leon Avenue and have two stops—the North Avenue MARTA station and Ponce City Market, a popular destination in Midtown Atlanta. The City is also exploring other areas of Atlanta to deploy smart city technology; Campbellton Road is now the site of a smart transit corridor in partnership with MARTA.

]]> Alyson Key 1 1562874758 2019-07-11 19:52:38 1570459305 2019-10-07 14:41:45 0 0 news Just over a year ago in September 2017, the City of Atlanta and Georgia Tech launched the North Avenue Smart Corridor. It’s the most connected corridor in Georgia and a living laboratory for traffic management through technology.

]]> 2018-10-29T00:00:00-04:00 2018-10-29T00:00:00-04:00 2018-10-29 00:00:00 Alyson Powell Key

Marketing Communications Manager

Institute for People and Technology

]]> <![CDATA[The Promise and Peril of Driverless Cars]]> 27980 What will the world look like when we’re no longer in the driver’s seat? Researchers, city officials, entrepreneurs, and journalists from across the country gathered at Georgia Tech on December 12 to examine this question. “How Driverless Cars Will Change the World,” hosted by Georgia Tech and Newsweek, looked at how autonomous vehicles (AVs) could change cities for the better or exacerbate our current problems, depending on how we prepare for the future.

After welcome remarks from Georgia Tech Executive Vice President for Research Chaouki Abdallah and Newsweek Global Editor in Chief Nancy Cooper, panelists discussed “The Promise of Driverless Cars.”

Subhrajit Guhathakurta, professor in the School of City and Regional Planning and director of the Center for Spatial Planning Analytics and Visualization, is researching how cities would change if shared driverless vehicles became our primary mode of transportation. With thoughtful planning, he said, cities can repurpose unused parking spaces into bike lanes, sidewalks, green space, and affordable housing, and businesses can spread out across cities. Guhathakurta urged city planners to “take advantage of the opportunities and avoid the pitfalls.”

New technology also brings social and cultural change. The panel looked at how humans and AVs can co-exist, suggesting public awareness campaigns and driver’s education on how to interact with overly-cautious AVs.

“There’s a human intuition that’s not being fully addressed yet with technology; we need to address it on a very fundamental level,” said Debra Lam, managing director of Smart Cities and Inclusive Innovation at Georgia Tech. She called AVs “a tool in the larger transportation toolkit that should interact with current modes of transportation.”

The second panel of the day, "Heaven or Hell?" examined potential downsides of AVs. Will they worsen our transportation problems, and what can forward-thinking cities do now to ensure a successful driverless future?

All of the panelists agreed that shared AVs like shuttles and buses are preferred over privately owned driverless vehicles, which would accelerate global warming and increase traffic congestion. “There’s a lot of wasted space in urban environments,” said Kari Watkins, assistant professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering. 

She encourages cities to redesign roads to give priority to shared AVs, and hold the owners of single—or zero—occupancy AVs financially accountable for how often they’re on the road.

Ellen Dunham-Jones, professor in the School of Architecture and author of the forthcoming book Retrofitting Case Studies, discussed socioeconomic factors related to AVs, saying cities should make public transit AVs accessible to all residents to prevent “an even more exacerbated divide between rich and poor.” She added, “AVs are not a silver bullet, but can make a difference if we plan appropriately.”

Newsweek’s December 14 cover story on driverless vehicles features interviews and op-eds from Dunham-Jones, Guhathakurta, Lam, Watkins, and School of Civil and Environmental Engineering Associate Professor Michael Hunter. Read more:

Will Driverless Cars Make Our Traffic Problems Worse?

How Autonomous Vehicles Will Transform Cities and Suburbs by Ending Traffic Jams, Parking Problems and Road Rage

How Autonomous Vehicles Could Transform the Demographics of U.S. Cities

]]> Alyson Key 1 1545060196 2018-12-17 15:23:16 1570459091 2019-10-07 14:38:11 0 0 news Georgia Tech and Newsweek host seminar on “How Driverless Cars Will Change the World”

]]> 2018-12-17T00:00:00-05:00 2018-12-17T00:00:00-05:00 2018-12-17 00:00:00 Alyson Powell Key

Marketing Communications Manager

Institute for People and Technology

]]> 615482 615484 615482 image <![CDATA[Panel: "The Promise of Driverless Cars"]]> image/jpeg 1545060067 2018-12-17 15:21:07 1545060067 2018-12-17 15:21:07 615484 image <![CDATA[Panel: "Heaven or Hell?"]]> image/jpeg 1545060159 2018-12-17 15:22:39 1545060159 2018-12-17 15:22:39