The city of Sacramento, which is joining the Startup in Residence (STiR) program for the first time this winter, will work with tech companies based in Australia and Chicago to improve pedestrian safety and understand travel patterns, its chief innovation officer (CINO) told Techwire.
The city will work with Sydney, Australia-based Unleash Live Pty Ltd., to examine pedestrian counts at intersections around the city, CINO Louis Stewart said. Sacramento hopes to see how the artificial intelligence from Unleash’s cloud-based software platform can predict where people will be, and when; and improve ongoing work with traffic signaling and autonomous vehicles. STiR, managed by San Francisco-based City Innovate, aims to link governments with startups to solve civic issues through technology.
“One of the biggest things is, they were able to use the existing hardware that we already have. So, it wasn’t going to cost us any extra infrastructure dollars,” Stewart said, noting Unleash also maintains a San Francisco presence. Sacramento’s cost to join the cohort was $20,000, he said.
With Xaqt, Sacramento expects to learn how its unified data and analytics platform can aggregate disparate streams of transportation data — from the city as well as private providers — to stimulate efficiencies and alleviate issues like congestion. The company’s work centers on digitizing governments and helping them use their data with smart city technologies, its founder said.
One of 22 government agencies participating this year, Sacramento saw presenting its challenges to City Innovate and joining the cohort as a chance to move forward, enabling future efforts in electric vehicles and multimodal transportation, from e-scooters to light rail, Stewart said.
“Because STiR has a global platform and it has a reputation for doing this, we thought that this was actually a good way to shine a light on Sacramento and the potential that we have to do some of these demonstrations. Ultimately, if Unleash and Xaqt produce a solution that helps solve one of the city’s pain-points, then, you know, we’re trying to figure out if there’s a way to move forward with full implementation after the 16-week program ends,” Stewart said.
Xaqt will first work to create a “solid data foundation” for Sacramento, its founder and CEO Chris Crosby told Techwire, ensuring all data sources — from parking meters and garages to mobile payment apps, traffic counts and sensor information — are fully integrated before adding its own analytics and visualizations “on top of that.”
“We may, when we combine the mobility data with parking data, look at ... how certain events or certain traffic patterns impact parking. And then look to how can we align these new levels of insights to provide the city mechanisms to drive different innovations or different policies. By giving them the visibility into how people move today, then that begins the first step, really, of determining what actions the city can take that align with their priorities,” Crosby said. The company, he said, is also partnering in STiR with the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada to create a dashboard documenting traffic conditions on arterial streets.
STiR, which began the week of Jan. 7, is in its sixth week and will wrap in late April. The city is working with the two companies it selected from 63 applicants to set project milestones, establish a meeting cadence and define success, Stewart said. It’s not yet clear if Sacramento will host any type of demonstration event when STiR wraps, he said, pointing out that whether deliverables work properly will be a determining factor.
