How Open Innovation is Keeping Us Moving
Traffic chaos and transit problems are perennial thorns in the sides of urban dwellers and commuters. Untangling congested networks often foxes local authorities, national governments and transport companies which is why a steadily increasing number of organisations is turning to the crowd for solutions.
Here are three crowdsourcing initiatives that are helping people to get from A to B without them tearing their hair out in frustration and losing the will to live.
The Cairo Transport App Challenge – a competition to tackle Cairo’s congestion problems received a broad range of ideas from more than 30 development teams. The winner was a traffic app called Beliaa that has a number of functions. They include giving drivers up-to-date information on congestion hotspots (the app is integrated with Egypt’s General Department for Traffic), and if a user’s car breaks down during a journey it uses GPS to send a map with its location to road assistance centers.
NYC BigApps Contest – the winner of the 2011 edition of this annual apps contest was ‘roadify’ an application to help New Yorkers find parking spaces as well as providing them with real-time transit information. The app aggregates city traffic data, and New Yorkers can also give on-the-spot updates about what’s happening on NYC’s roads and rail networks.
The Seoul Cycle Design Competition 2010 – an international open innovation contest for new bicycle designs to help Seoul re-shape its urban environment. The motivation was to ease congestion as well as boosting the health of individuals and the planet. The Grand Winner was Bike 2.0, a pedal-powered and battery-powered innovative remake of the bicycle.
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