MegaCities - Scenario 2025

Interview W. MitchellOne of the world’s biggest cities is about to be automated. MetroCon, the citiy’s new control center, will interconnect major automated services, such as public transit and traffic lights, and coordinate them with data from millions of micro sensors to optimize processes and produce coordinated responses to unforeseen events. A press conference to introduce the center—complete with downloadable disaster simultations—is under way...

June 5, 2025: Urban history was written today with the official opening of the Metro Area Consolidated Control Center (MetroCon). The new facility, which was introduced to a small group of reporters who had received special security clearances, is the first anywhere to link a city’s previously automated services and networked sensor systems, thereby setting the stage, officials said, for significant savings and major improvements in operational efficiency, safety and security.

On hand for the dedication of the Center were Mayor Tanya Trin and MetroCon General Manager Dr. Park Ho. “We are entering a new era of flexibility in which city services respond to changing demands on a nearly instantaneous level,” said Trin. She pointed out that the city’s automated subway system – a model for MetroCon – achieved high levels of flexibility years ago by variably spacing trains according to the numbers of passengers counted on platforms by smart cams and the numbers of riders counted on trains by radio interrogation of electronic tickets.

"We have now taken that flexibility a giant step further," explained Ho. "For instance," he said, as a simulated event appeared on reporter’s PDAs, "if a fire or major accident were to occur near a subway stop, local microcams with embedded intelligence would access weather data from the navigation systems of nearby vehicles, then notify the Transit Authority and, depending on flame analysis, imaging information, temperature, and flame spread speed,Transit System computers and MetroCon personnel would reroute trains accordingly and seal subway accesss points that could be at risk." Statistics based on MetroCon simulations indicate that a significant number of injuries could be avoided by implementing the system’s instantaneous response scenarios during emergencies.

"And that’s just the beginning," said Ho. "Depending on the significance of the event, a range of additional automated responses might be initiated." He explained that MetroCon’s new Automatic Traffic Priority Messaging (ATPM) software will broadcast messages to vehicle navigation systems whenever significant security-related events occur. Using embedded intelligence, vehicles potentially affected by the information will plot a slightly different course, thus ensuring that they avoid areas in which emergency vehicles are in operation.

"Our simulations have shown that this combination of priority broadcast and vehicle-based response can clear an emergency site and its access routes of traffic within minutes without tying up police resources, and without causing major delays," said Ho, who pointed out that rerouting would be facilitated by automatically altering traffic light timing to create unobstructed paths for vehicles traveling around an event’s perimeter. "All in all, these steps will allow emergency personnel to reach the scene of an accident or crime as quickly as possible, and will have the added benefit of sealing off escape routes in case criminal activity is involved," Ho said.

Ho also said that wireless local stereo microcams—now numbering in the tens of millions in the Metro area—would automatically form a network around any significant event, directing street lighting to be adaptively and locally activated to ensure ideal visibility for themselves and emergency personnel. Furthermore, 3D microcam images will also be accessible on the wrist-mounted, biometrically activated PDAs used by officers at an emergency scene—as well as at MetroCon itself.

Mayor Trin said that area hospitals, with their disease identification EarlyAlert Network, as well as power plants, police, fire, communications, water, sewage, gas, electric and sanitation services, will also be part of the big picture at MetroCon. "We will know and see—in real time—the location and speed of every police vehicle, every ambulance, and every automated garbage recovery and recycling unit," she said. "The system will even seal the windows, lock the doors and switch off the ignitions of vehicles under certain circumstances."

Dr. Ho added that he expects "significant savings" once MetroCon computers begin monitoring the status of vehicles and networks. "Our systems will automatically generate and archive logs as to where, when, and under what circumstance vehicles, systems and personnel are deployed. They will monitor on-time availability, generate repair histories, and order spares and repairs automatically. They will support the city’s logistics—as well as the logistics of private businesses—by allowing these to be coordinated on an optimized basis with traffic and transit system schedules in real time on Yornet. And further down the line," he said, "MetroCon will identify trends, learn from events, and accelerate decision-making processes for the government and private sector throughout the city."