Smart Cities—A Vision of the Future or the Present? - Technology Management for Sustainable Production and Logistics - page 127

Development cannot be prevented. We should think what directions it will go
to have a positive impact on the three areas the concept of sustainable develop-
ment concerns—the environment, the economy and the society. The analysis of
solutions introduced by cities may raise a fear that costs of implementations and
investments will exceed budget possibilities of a particular metropolis. It seems
that in order to solve this problem, city authorities more often expand a network of
roads, build housing estates or business parks and use modern technologies. Their
elaboration and the purchase are tied up with higher costs however later usage
is cheaper, more ecological and effective as compared to traditional solutions.
Nowadays cities have smart ITS systems allowing traffic lights to adjust to the cur-
rent traffic, monitoring which increases safety of inhabitants and locates current
break-downs, pavements releasing energy, systems designed for particular groups
e.g. minders of children or the elderly following movements of these people in a
specific safety zone and many other solutions being elaborated and implanted to
adjust to the concept of smart city. Cities want to be smart and succeed more often.
It is worthwhile to ask a question whether also Polish Cities want to be smart? It
would undoubtedly give a great opportunity to not only manage a metropolis more
efficiently but also to build the social capital through involving inhabitants into those
issues. The social dialogue would lead to more conscious changes in the urban space
and improvements in life of all social groups both the elderly and the disabled.
Innovations may be more real thanks to the possibility of using resources of
the European Union. Nowadays development of smart cities in Poland is curbed
by fragmentary implementation of projects leading to a poor coordination between
particular sectors and a limited cooperation between entities ( 2014 ). As long as
there is not a compatible platform of information management, the authorities will
not be able to manage the city effectively and inhabitants will come across vari-
ous hindrances such as the lack of information about break-downs and detours of
trams or buses, the lack of one ticket for all means of transport, the lack of appro-
priate transport infrastructure, solutions for users of cycling paths or long commut-
ing time to get to the office caused by traffic jams.
Development of smart cities is very dynamic. All over the world metropolises arise
based on modern technologies. In view of the above it would be interesting to know
to what extent modern solutions reduce exclusion of particular social groups (e.g. par-
ents with small kids, the elderly, the disabled) to what extent implemented systems
are compatible with each other and removing one problem does not entail another.
This situation can be illustrated by selected low-floor lines of public transport
in Wroclaw in Poland. They indeed give physically impaired people a possibility
of travelling however the fact that the lines operate selectively deprives them of
reaching a destination as they are not able to use one low-floor vehicle. These cur-
rent problems to say nothing of the urban infrastructure such as traffic lights, the
quality or the height of pavements preventing not only the elderly or the disabled
but also parents with prams and small children from moving freely. The potential
of using modern solutions in this area is huge. Beforehand real users' needs have
to be examined by having a dialogue with the authorities.
Development of smart cities is inevitable. One may actively take part in their
creation to make them friendly, safe places improving the quality of life. That is