Every day, we hear about Smart Cities. About how data can give us insight and help us understand our own cities, to then be more efficient when planning and implementing new infrastructure. About how new connected technologies will revolutionise the way we move, the way we work and the way we play across the urban space. But what about all the great low tech solutions and best practices that still lay unexplored?

Pedro Rivera, Director of Studio-X Rio, told us about a visionary participative project they carried out in the city center of Rio de Janiero. Through citizen engagement and local campaigns they managed to demand deep changes in specific areas of the city: parking spaces were replaced by cycle lanes, and kids were brought onto the streets again. "All this was done by hand: we asked people to draw on a big map where they wanted safe infrastructure. But I don't see these methods as competing with technology: we have to find a way to complement them".

Irene McAleese, Co-Founder of See.Sense, then took the floor, presenting a compelling case study from Dublin, where See.Sense technology was leveraged to optimise cycle mobility and make sure evidence was generated in the process. "With the data collected through our bike lights, we were able to show the city how great an impact a bike lane had on the safety, directedness and efficiency of a specific street. This allowed them to build a stronger case for other city roads: we used bike data for advocacy".

Finally, Morten Kabell, former Mayor of Technical and Environmental Affairs of Copenhagen and now COO of Copenhagenize, discussed the best way to complement these approaches. "I have been in charge of transportation in Copenhagen for 4 years, and I agree that these systems are perfectly complementary: a good network of segregated infrastructure is absolutely necessary to guarantee the safety of cyclists and pedestrians. And having good quality data and evidence is just as important in order to implement any change to the city infrastructure: technology serves the purpose of what low tech planning has to do".