Cities and municipalities face a number of tough questions as they try to provide residents with a good place to work and live. How much congestion and pollution are caused by vehicles circling the block as drivers look for a parking spot? Which intersections have the most near-miss accidents? Where is jaywalking common — and…

As a senior data center architect, I work regularly with organizations such as police forces, county health departments and state election agencies. These organizations face different challenges, and each has different ways that it wants to achieve its mission. But my conversations with the people in these organizations reveal meaningful similarities among them. Generally, the…

A modern vehicle processes an estimated 25 gigabytes of data each hour. Much of that is for internal operations, such as navigation and continuous optimization of the drivetrain. But an increasing amount of data involves driving conditions, such as hard braking. Today, fleet owners and insurance companies use that data internally to detect unsafe driving…

Local governments face a major challenge in determining how best to manage traffic. Which intersections need stop signs or traffic signals? Which roads need streetlights to illuminate them? Which streets should be restriped to prohibit passing? Accident reports sound like a smart place for municipalities to find the answers to these questions, but these reports…

What is a human life worth? It’s priceless, obviously. Determining an approximate ROI to safeguard your citizens is a complicated calculation. Take streetlights, for example. Municipalities have them because they know the expense is worth the additional safety to a pedestrian whom motorists can now see when a streetlight keeps her out of the shadows….