2016 is approaching and all cities are dressing up. Every country in the world celebrates the arrival of the New Year in a different way, although all with similar scenarios: lots of partying, lots of excesses and lots of people. To try to organize all this fervor, both public administrations and private companies develop year after year solutions to improve traffic, inform about the calendar of events and even encourage responsible consumption. In this article we will see How New Year's Eve is experienced in a Smart City, In other words, how they propose solutions based on digital technology to manage the New Year's Eve party.
3 ways to experience New Year's Eve in a Smart City
Despite the fact that all Smart Cities propose solutions focused on providing citizens with better accessibility and real-time information, the truth is that they have all developed different applications. And the most important thing is that not all of them have been successful, as we will see below.
Sidney
Sydney is undoubtedly the city that has been the most involved in the development of a exclusive solution to celebrate New Year's Eve. And it is logical, since it is one of the most festive spots on the planet at the end of the year: fireworks, dance shows, family activities and even a maritime show in the bay near the famous Sydney Opera House.
So that the whole planet can be aware of this great celebration, the Australian company Telstra has developed an app that will function as «a personal assistant».» during the evening. In addition to exclusive content, this smart app will provide information on the best places in Sydney to watch the fireworks. In addition, it will also allow streaming of the fireworks from anywhere in the world.
This app is designed for users to enjoy the night without having to think about New Year's greetings, as it allows them to schedule 50 standard messages and send them after midnight, no matter from which social network they want to do it. At the moment it seems that the developers have thought of everything, it only remains to be seen what users will think on the 1st.
New York
While Sydney has developed an app to keep track of all the city's activities in real time, New York has designed its smart New Year's Eve from a completely different perspective. Instead of a comprehensive app, everyone who wants to spend New Year's Eve in the city will be able to download the Times square ball app, The program will give you a first-hand look at what's going on in New York's busiest square.
This app offers a countdown timer adapted to any time zone, a streaming what's happening in Times Square and other exclusive video content. In addition, users will also be able to tweet about the Times Square Ball without leaving the app.
At this point, the question we might ask ourselves is: Was this application necessary? Although it may seem excessive to develop an app to follow live what happens in such a specific point of the planet, the truth is that the New Year's Eve celebration in New York is followed by many more people than it might seem a priori. Without going any further, every New Year's Eve, more than a million people (mostly tourists) attend Times Square and more than 1 billion follow the new year's eve show on television to see the famous crystal sphere. There are live shows from 7 p.m. to 12 midnight, and according to some attendees, at 12 noon there is no room for a pin. To get an idea of the expectation that is generated on that day, just take a look at the restaurants in the area: The cheapest New Year's Eve menus do not go below 400 dollars.
It may be precisely the great interest generated by Times Square that has led the developers to design an exclusive application. However, not everything goes as expected. Last year, many of the users who downloaded the application were not entirely satisfied, This is reflected in the comments on the download page. One user said that «if I could give this app 0 stars, I would», complaining that the streaming stopped when there were 37 seconds left for the Times Square sphere to go down, so the app was completely useless. We'll have to wait until after midnight on the 31st to see if the app will work properly this year.
London
Unlike the 2 cities we have already mentioned, London does not have an app designed to improve services on New Year's Eve. However, the Transport for London website offers a solution that could be definitive to avoid transport problems on festive occasions. Plan a Journey recommends us the best route we can take to go from point A to point B, with the day and time we choose and with all the specifications we can imagine. Although it is not strictly an app, the web is fully responsive and has a design that adapts perfectly to the user's needs. any type of device.
We can choose whether we want to go by subway, bus, bike, walk or take the streetcar. We can even program our route taking into account that we walk slowly, that we don't want to make too many turns or that we want to take the bike on the subway.
For some years now, the City of London has been working to improve accessibility for its citizens and, in particular, for the smooth operation of public transportation in the city. In this sense, it is during special days like New Year's Eve that it is more necessary than ever to plan ahead, and Transport for London is aware of this. Therefore, that night the subway will be free and the police will facilitate entry into certain restricted areas for residents.