Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs and the City of Toronto are planning to build a high tech urban development in downtown Toronto over the next few years. Known as “Quayside” it will be an opportunity to potentially demonstrate, pilot, and test a wide range of “smart city” technologies that could make urban life more convenient, more pleasant and more energy efficient. Smart technology throughout the urban area could, for example, make traffic lights responsive to actual pedestrian and vehicle traffic, facilitate mechanized trash collection, separate vehicle traffic from pedestrians, facilitate self-driving cars, and make data easily available to the public. Other high tech innovations could make the entire region more sustainable and self-sufficient in energy. To help build understanding of what may be coming, the company is organizing a year-long public engagement process.
Some of the initial stakeholder discussions led by the developers indicated that local residents have concerns about how data on them might be collected and used by the extensive systems being planned. In response, Sidewalk Labs developed a “responsible data-use policy framework,” the first draft of which was released in early May. The developers promised that residents will be asked to “opt-in” before being subscribed to services that require collecting personal data. Other information collected will be cleaned to make sure it contains no personal details. Sidewalk has also pledged not to sell the information to third parties or use it for advertising itself.
Sidewalk Toronto is a joint effort by Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs, a sister company to Google. Sidewalk Toronto explains that it “will combine forward-thinking urban design and new digital technology to create people-centred neighbourhoods that achieve precedent-setting levels of sustainability, affordability, mobility, and economic opportunity.” Waterfront Toronto is a multi-level public agency established in 2001 by the Government of Canada, Province of Ontario, and the City of Toronto to lead the renewal of the city’s waterfront in becoming a world-class archetype of post-industrial innovative urban development.
The organizers explain that, throughout 2018, extensive public consultation and stakeholder engagement will inform and help shape Sidewalk Toronto’s Master Innovation and Development Plan, including public policy and regulatory impacts. The Plan will be subject to approval by the boards of both Waterfront Toronto and Sidewalk Labs. Its implementation will require a variety of municipal and governmental approvals. The objectives are described as follows:
1. Establish a complete community that improves quality of life for a diverse population of residents, workers, and visitors.
2. Create a destination for people, companies, startups, and local organizations to advance solutions to the challenges facing cities, such as energy use, housing affordability, and transportation.
3. Make Toronto the global hub of a rising new industry: urban innovation.
4. Serve as a model for sustainable neighbourhoods throughout Toronto and cities around the world.
The Quayside development sits within the larger Eastern Waterfront area, a tract of more than 800 acres and one of North America’s largest areas of underdeveloped urban land. Company literature says the region “will be a new type of place that combines the best in urban design with the latest in digital technology to address some of the biggest challenges facing cities, including energy use, housing affordability, and transportation. It will be a place that embraces adaptable buildings and new construction methods to make housing and retail space more affordable. A place where people-centred street designs and a range of transportation options make getting around more affordable, safe, and convenient than the private car. A place that encourages innovation around energy, waste, and other environmental challenges to protect the planet. A place where public spaces welcome families to enjoy the outdoors all day and all night and where community ties are strong. A place that’s enhanced by digital technology and data, without giving up the privacy and security that everyone deserves. … Sidewalk Toronto aims to make the Eastern Waterfront the global hub of a new industry focused on urban innovation to improve the quality of city life, tapping into Toronto’s already-thriving tech sector and developing innovations that could benefit communities and neighbourhoods elsewhere in the city. To help get started, Alphabet plans to move Google’s Canadian headquarters to the Eastern Waterfront.”
No doubt people from the energy industry will have some ideas on how distributed energy resources might be deployed in such a setting. The next public consultation meeting is set for July 11. For more information, readers may wish to see:
For more information, readers may wish to see:
• The responsible data-use policy framework, https://sidewalktoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Sidewalk-Toronto-Responsible_Data_Use_Framework_V0.2.pdf
• Sidewalk Toronto’s Master Innovation and Development Plan https://sidewalktoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Sidewalk-Labs-Vision-Sections-of-RFP-Submission.pdf
• General company information: https://sidewalktoronto.ca.