A new smart city initiative in Helsinki

Innovative pilot in Helsinki

Connected lighting enables a parking monitoring solution

With people spending an average of 12-19 minutes looking for parking*, improving the efficiency of locating a parking spot can lower the levels of CO₂ pollution, reduce traffic noise, and cut down on illegal parking. In addition, reducing illegal parking and monitoring violators helps cities levy fines and manage parking occupancy more effectively. However, today’s street parking infrastructure is generally difficult to monitor. There is little or no up-to-date, accessible information regarding the availability of parking spots, making it difficult to manage occupancy. Together with the city of Helsinki and Forum Virium, Philips Lighting is looking to tackle this issue.

*Armonk, N.Y. (2011). IBM Global Parking Survey: Drivers Share Worldwide Parking Woes. Retrieved May 18, 2017

…Helsinki, as one of the leading smart cities, is looking at IoT to help achieve many of its targets. The smart parking solution nicely complements this progress…”

Lauri Uski, Project Manager

Public Works Department, City of Helsinki

What is the role of connected street lighting in smart and sustainable cities?

The smart parking pilot explores new applications for connected technology. This pilot builds on a connected lighting infrastructure by using sensors embedded in the light poles and cameras to monitor parking availability. Continuous tracking helps identify available spaces and parking bottlenecks, helping drivers and allowing city planners to optimize parking spaces. The concept has provided Helsinki with insights into business models and innovative ways of utilizing existing lighting network assets as a backbone for IoT applications.

Jakarta embraces connected technology

Jakarta's recent lighting project, a significant milestone in the city's ongoing transformation into a smart city, involved upgrading nearly 90,000 street luminaires with energy efficient LED lights connected to a Philips CityTouch lighting management system. Completed in just seven months, this project represents the world’s fastest street lighting retrofit and remote management project undertaken to date.

Evolving applications,
Los Angeles

"There is a lot more that can be achieved using the street lighting infrastructure, in addition to providing lighting for the citizens.” Ed Ebrahimian, Director, Bureau of Street Lighting, City of Los Angeles.

Philips Lighting created a pilot program that uses an open systems approach to leverage the city’s connected street lighting infrastructure:

San Francisco

In 2011, the non-profit arts organization, ILLUMINATE, collaborated with the California Department of Transportation, and artist Leo Villareal to create a stunning display of light on the San Francisco -Oakland Bay Bridge. Unveiled in 2013 and originally intended as a short-term installation, The Bay Lights became a global attraction. Before going live, it was dubbed by Hemispheres magazine as “the number one thing to see in the world during 2013.”

Los Angeles

With more than half of its street lights already converted to LED, the city of Los Angeles connects 110,000 light points using Philips CityTouch and connector nodes with plug-and-play activation. With its new lighting management system, Los Angeles is a on its way to becoming a smart city.

Buenos Aires

"In addition to enabling energy savings, CityTouch provides our customers with unique, flexible, sustainable, and integrated lighting management solutions."

Gustavo Verna, CEO Philips Argentina

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A new smart city initiative in Helsinki

Innovative pilot in Helsinki

Connected lighting enables a parking monitoring solution

What is the role of connected street lighting in smart and sustainable cities?