Dallas adds 6 smart programs to 'Living Lab' corridor

Dive Brief:

Dallas will debut six smart projects during the second phase of the build-out of the West End "Living Lab," an innovation and testing corridor. The Living Lab project is led by the nonprofit Dallas Innovation Alliance, a public-private partnership made up of the city itself and dozens of businesses.
The projects include smart digital infrastructure, irrigation, water management and parking systems, as well as public Wi-Fi and a mobility initiative with Toyota.
Phase one of the project began last spring with the installation of smart LED lighting, interactive kiosks and sensors for tracking environmental conditions and pedestrian foot traffic.

Dive Insight:

Dallas is quickly charging into the smart city space with its rapid integration of smart projects over the past year. It's working to brand the Living Lab in the West End as not only an innovation center, but also a place to test new technologies to determine if they should be implemented throughout the rest of the city.

Earlier this month Dallas chose Ericsson to install an advanced traffic management system with a number of automated features such as traffic lights and sign messaging, with some intersections also equipped to automatically dial 911 when an accident occurs.

During the first phase of the Living Lab pilot, Dallas found the most measurable success with its smart streetlight project. The 23 LED lights saved more than 870 kW of energy in quarter two of last year. Analysts determined that installing LEDs in all of the city's 85,000 streetlights could save tens of millions of dollars over 10 years.

The Dallas Innovation Alliance has gathered data on the other projects and plans to release it this week. "Ultimately, a smart city works to solve city problems, conserve resources and create an inclusive and prosperous city; the technology itself is not enough without measurable insights provided by data," said Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings in a statement.

The Dallas Innovation Alliance is working to develop other projects to launch this year, including the to-be-named mobility initiative in South Dallas.