Basel’s Smart Street Pilot Project

Smart technologies have long promised great potential for saving resources and using energy more efficiently. Imagine the benefits if you, as a driver, could receive real-time information on the availability of street parking in your area. Less circling the block in search of a parking space means less traffic noise and emissions, not to mention less time and frustration to the driver.

The Office for Mobility, the Office for Environment and Energy, the Air Hygiene Office beider Basel, the Open Government Data (OGD), and Basel Industrial Works (IWB) specialist departments have joined forces under the leadership of cantonal and urban development to jointly test various technologies for data collection in public spaces.

In February 2022, the “Smarte Strasse” project was launched in the city of Basel to evaluate whether smart technologies can lead to improved management of traffic that will benefit both drivers and the environment. To this end, a stretch of Gundeldingerstrasse near Margarethenpark has been equipped with five sensors that measure air quality, noise levels, as well as the use of parking spaces in the area. The sensors are made visible on site with pictograms and QR codes that are easy to understand and with the goal of transparency, the data collected by these sensors are freely accessible to the public and can be viewed on the Basel-Stadt data portal at https://data.bs.ch.

In another part of the project, the IWB is trying to determine whether the existing power distribution boxes can also be used as charging stations for electric vehicles. And as the sensors themselves need power, they are also trying to determine if the power needed to run the sensors can be supplied by the existing street lighting, thus minimizing the work needed to accommodate such installations in the future.

The test phase will run for one year, ending in February 2023. The results will determine if the application of smart technologies can lead to a better management of parking spaces, which could eventually result in a roll-out to larger urban areas.

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