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Kansas City launches Smart City Initiative

The KC Streetcar is just a piece of the new high-tech advances coming to Kansas City this year. As KC officials work to turn the town into a model Smart City, Brian Abel investigates the technology they'll be using to help traffic, businesses and ped

By: Brian Abel

Posted at 1:13 PM, May 05, 2016

and last updated 2016-05-05 14:13:40-04

The system is online. Kansas City officially debuted its Smart City system Thursday, one day ahead of the official launch of the KC Streetcar, and the two projects are intertwined.

Much of the infrastructure for the $15 million public-private partnership is built into the same system as the KC Streetcar.

What does it do?

Free Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi system is set up along the entire two-mile route and covers around 50 blocks, according to Kansas City's chief information officer Bob Bennett.

He said that Sprint’s free Wi-Fi is currently pulling about 18.2 mbps, which is similar to normal service speeds for home internet.

“You can send an email just as you would at home,” said Bennett.

Smart kiosk

Twenty-five digital touch screen kiosks sit along the streetcar route. Users have access to information about current events and tourist attractions as well as the ability to see where the streetcar is along the route.

Advertisements can be location-specific, according to Kansas City communications director Chris Hernandez, allowing people getting off at a streetcar stop the ability to see dinner specials within a one-block radius.

Smart sensors

If you look above streetlights at intersections along the route and see a blue device shaped like a hockey puck on top, that device is looking back at you. It collects data that the city says will improve city services.

"Those are sensors that count numbers of people at different street corners. If I'm able to understand where there's a hundred people versus where there's 20 people, I'm able to tell the police, 'Hey, you probably need to focus your attention toward where the 100 are,’” said Bennett.

Bennett said the sensors also have implications for economic development.

"If there's a business owner who wants to put in a new restaurant, wouldn't you like to know where the greatest concentration of people are between 9 and 11 a.m.? I'm going to know that now," said Bennett.