Could a Smart City Ameliorate Urban Traffic Congestion? A Quasi-Natural Experiment Based on a Smart City Pilot Program in China

Abstract

More countries and regions are joining the bandwagon of smart city construction, which is an important strategy and innovative urban governance concept to solve the problem of rapid urbanization. This paper examines whether smart city innovation is able to ameliorate the traffic congestion faced by a large number of cities. Using panel data for 187 prefecture-level cities in China from 2008 to 2017, this paper tests the effect of implementation of a smart city on urban traffic congestion with the difference-in-difference method. The results show that, firstly, the construction of smart cities have significantly reduced the degree of urban traffic congestion and improved the quality and capacity of public transport. Secondly, information technology and urban innovation are the main mechanisms for smart city implementation to improve urban traffic problems. Thirdly, the improvement effect of smart city implementation on traffic management shows an increasing marginal effect over time. By overcoming the estimation bias in previous studies, this study accurately analyzes the positive role and dynamic effect of smart city construction on traffic improvement. It augments the literature of program evaluation and assessment of smart city implementation. By examining how to improve traffic congestion, it offers some insights that could inspire governments to build smarter cities with better traffic.

Towards Smart City Governance. Case Study: Improving the Interpretation of Quantitative Traffic Measurement Data through Citizen Participation

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Research on Intelligent City Traffic Management System based on WEBGIS

“…In the space three-dimensional coordinate system, the location of the actual traffic accident is obtained by calculation. After determining the actual location of the traffic accident, a traffic network map with the accident location as the center and the distance between the accident location and the rescue team as the radius is established by using WEBGIS technology [15][16] . The system designed in this paper selects map services in ArcGIS Server to provide rescue Map Service.…”

Developing a Framework for Spatial Effects of Smart Cities Based on Spatial Econometrics

“…us, many cities are suffering from mega-urban diseases [1,2]. Developing smart cities provides an efficient method to address mega-urban diseases and achieve the sustainable urban development [3][4][5]. e concept of smart cities was first proposed by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) in 2008 [6].…”