Traffic congestion and air pollution generate an enormous cost in terms of economic and human lives, to which must be added deaths due to traffic accidents.

Digital information and communication technologies make it possible to manage traffic more efficiently. The aim is to reduce pollutants through the majority use of public or more environmentally friendly transportation (bicycles, motorcycles, electric cars).

The opportunities for companies with traffic management systems – platforms, predictive software, sensors for gauging, traffic lights, information panels, signs, etc. – are reinforced. – that enable “à la carte” traffic management in a city, with timely information for citizens. Enormous opportunities are also opening up for manufacturers of elements for public transport and electric vehicles.

Most cities were designed and grew in the first half of the 20th century with the automobile at the center. Today the trend is to put the citizen, the person, at the center. It is therefore necessary to make cities more sustainable, healthy, safe and livable.

The limitation of resources such as energy, water, clean air, materials, or public space, mark a clear need for a change in consumption patterns, moving from linear to circular, in order to reduce the use of resources and emissions.

Systems are appearing on the Internet to share lodging resources, transportation (increased use of car, motorcycle or bicycle sharing) or any type of object. On the other hand, priority is given to the recovery of materials through the search for secondary raw materials derived from pre-treatment of waste.

Contrary to the centralist architecture of the traditional IoT, in which sensors are passive elements, Edge Computing provides computational capacity to the devices at the periphery of the network.

Sensors collect information so that data can be processed closer to where it is created and avoid having to be sent over long distances, with the consequent risk of latencies (something very relevant in machine-to-machine communications).

Edge devices can be any IoT object: an autonomous car, an environmental sensor, a security camera or a traffic light, but the increase in automated homes and buildings and the emergence of 5G mean that these technologies are expected to be in high demand.

Cities have been one of the first places where the so-called Internet of Things has been applied, in a Smart City concept where pilots have proliferated, but which is here to stay. The incorporation of sensors has multiplied, for example, in furniture.

Thus, in addition to the traditional use, it can provide other types of information to the municipalities and be an element that helps to manage the urban environment in a more efficient and sustainable way.

Opportunities for ICT and sensor companies are often highlighted in this area. For example, humidity sensors that prevent irrigation after rain, sensors that measure the occupancy level of urban containers, sensors that collect weather data, pollution data, traffic movement, etc. But there is no Internet of Things without “things”, so traditional urban elements get new uses that allow them to incorporate more value. For example, luminaires with LED systems (less polluting), which in turn act as a platform to include sensors or electric vehicle charging systems.

Elements of street furniture whose traditional function had been the management of traffic or public space, are being used for a new purpose: the prevention of attacks or robberies with vehicles.

Following a series of attacks in several European cities carried out by vehicles invading pedestrians’ space or store thefts caused by cars crashing into shop windows, public authorities and store owners are installing bulky planters and heavy-duty bollards to prevent vehicles from passing through.

On the other hand, cities are adapting their spaces and furnishings to another social phenomenon: the “homeless” by readapting facilities to avoid their presence on public roads.

Benches are replaced by chairs in order to prevent “homeless” people from using them for sleeping. Comfort has been relegated in many cases to the design of hostile elements.