Cities of tomorrow

Cities can be confusing, messy places. Traffic jams make it hard to get around. Public transit can be puzzling. Trash piles up. So what can make cities function better? One starting point is to let all that apparent chaos speak to us - in the form of data. At least, that is the approach taken by MIT-s Senseable City Lab, where for a decade now, researchers have been using networked data to create pictures of cities in motion: how traffic and people move, where trash goes, and more. Those projects have produced intriguing results, on the flow of people in European cities, the disposal of trash in the U.S., and commuting habits and patterns of mobile-phone use on four continents. Some have had a discernible impact: A 2009 project tracking trash in Seattle, for example, has led to greater public awareness and ongoing inquiry into disposal practices. Beyond any one issue, however, Senseable City members have become outspoken advocates for use of network-based data to inform policy and planning in urban life. 'The important thing is to think about how we can try to better understand urban dynamics, and how can we use this to create a city that is really under control of the citizens,' says Carlo Ratti, director of the Senseable City Lab, and a professor of the practice in MIT-s Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP). Now Ratti and DUSP Phd student Matthew Claudel have outlined that vision by co-writing a new book, 'The City of Tomorrow: Sensors, Networks, Hackers, and the Future of Urban Life,' published this week by Yale University Press. Human experience As an overview, 'The City of Tomorrow?