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Voting alert: Pittsburgh is a finalist in the national Smart Cities Awards

Initiatives from both the city and county governments earned recognition as nominees for IDC Government Insights' annual awards program.

View of the Move PGH digital app powered by Transit. (Courtesy image)
Pittsburgh is being recognized for two civic programs that are paving the way for smart city innovation.

Tech and public policy consulting firm IDC Government Insights announced the finalists for its fifth annual Smart Cities North America Awards (SCNAA) this week. Meant to recognize initiatives from cities, counties, states and universities that promote the use of information and communication tech to advance citizen welfare and government services, these awards honor cities for prowess in administration, civic engagement, data-driven policing and more.

This year, two local programs earned recognition on this year’s crop of 38 finalists, including one from the City of Pittsburgh and one from Allegheny County.

The City’s Move PGH program, which launched last summer, is one of four finalists for the transportation infrastructure category, which also includes programs in autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles and train traffic solutions from Golden, Colorado; Austin, Texas; and Lima, Ohio, respectively.

By bringing together and coordinating a wide range of local transit options through Move PGH, Pittsburgh’s government became the first in the country to officially launch a mobility as a service (MaaS) initiative. The program entails both a robust app, offering access to bus schedules, electric scooter availability, ride hailing platforms and the like, as well as 50 physical mobility hubs around the city. The program’s hope is that making last-mile transportation options more accessible will resolve mobility limitations faced by the 20% of Pittsburghers without a car, a concern that’s become more pressing as pandemic restrictions have begun to lift.

Meanwhile, Allegheny County’s initiative to use school bus routes and machine learning to deliver meals to families in need is one of three finalists in the public health and social services category. It’s up against gunshot detection technology from Miramar, Florida, and a program for optimal sanitation routing from West Memphis, Arkansas.

In collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, the county launched the program in July 2020 to determine efficient bus routes and distribution locations to deliver meals to as many people as possible. The initiative started out of concerns that rose during the onset of online learning about students who relied on the free breakfasts and lunches provided at school. By collecting and anonymizing addresses of those in need of the service, CMU and the Allegheny County Department of Human Services were able to optimize the food delivery service.

“Now in our fifth year, we are thrilled to witness the continued growth of innovative smart city initiatives, across all categories, to enhance service delivery, drive new revenue streams and spur economic development,” said Ruthbea Yesner, a smart cities-focused VP at IDC Government Insights, in a statement. “Recognized as an industry benchmark for smart city success, our annual SCNAA offers governments a practical framework for how to increase the attractiveness, services and economic opportunities of their city, state or country and spotlight the increasingly critical role of technology to realign government services with the needs and expectations of citizens.”

Beyond Pittsburgh, another Technical.ly market boasts initiatives selected as finalists: In Baltimore, the City of Baltimore’s Virtual Snow Operations Dashboard was nominated for the administration category, and the nearby Howard County, Maryland’s Transform Howard program was nominated for the education category.

Public voting is open to determine the winner of each award until 5 p.m. EST on Sunday, Mar. 13. Final winners will be announced at the Smart Cities Connect conference in Columbus, Ohio, from April 4 to 7.

Vote here Sophie Burkholder is a 2021-2022 corps member for Report for America, an initiative of The Groundtruth Project that pairs young journalists with local newsrooms. This position is supported by the Heinz Endowments.
Companies: City of Pittsburgh / Carnegie Mellon University
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