Smart roads pave a connected path to innovation
The Future. Roads may be turning into tech devices. The development of smart roads could power cars, provide internet access, and create a self-funding data market, fixing present problems while preparing for future ones. While it would require more money than the U.S. has allocated for road repair, a mixture of public investment, private partnerships, and a new toll system could jumpstart the travel transformation.
Intelligent interstateThe $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act has finally passed, and TechCrunch’s Tim Sylvester believes that the best way to improve our roads is to turn them into something more.
Sylvester argues that turning roads into a “data and communications platform” through private-public partnerships could allow a diverse array of businesses and the government to monetize driver data.
For example, businesses can pay to access smart road data to know how many drivers regularly pass by their establishments.
That will, in turn, make the new roads pay for themselves (just like cell and internet infrastructure) making spending more efficient.
Also, roads could be outfitted with 5G wireless access and remote EV charging, which would both improve broadband access and support mass EV-adoption.
Smart roads could also give the government the ability to improve traffic management, optimize city planning, monitor vehicle safety, and better understand the environmental impact of driving.
Repair jamThe $100 billion allotted in the infrastructure bill (meant to repair the roughly four million miles of public roadways) may seem like a lot, but we’ve unfortunately fallen way behind in our repairs for decades. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, 43% of our roads are in “poor or mediocre condition,” putting us $435 billion behind in needed repairs.
That backlog is staggering when considering that paved roads were only introduced a century ago. Plus, the Federal-Aid Highway Act — the law that funded the interstate highway, called “greatest public works project in history” — passed just over 60 years ago. Maybe it’s time we one-up ourselves.
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