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Smart bus shelters quickly become stupid: frost-tested fashion novelties KXan 36 Daily News

Date: March 29, 2024 Time: 17:07:44

They chose the smart ones, what is called the latest technological fad. How are they expected? If it’s wrong there, then what can we say about ordinary situations?

minus 31 degrees

In January, the air temperature in Izhevsk dropped below minus 31 degrees.

Smart public transport stops appeared here in 2019. Their installation was preceded by an extensive advertising campaign. The experts discussed the need and need for structures that will be equipped with Wi-Fi access points, smartphone chargers, and video cameras. And even multimedia modules with up-to-date information – with their help you can go online, check your mail, see a map of the city.

“This is a pilot set of smart stops. Let’s see how the city community perceives the new pavilions,” Oleg Bekmemetyev, director of Izhevsk, said at the time. We went and looked.

In three years, smart stops have gotten pretty stupid. Today they are simple metallic structures. Chargers, video cameras, Internet access points are long gone. The screen showing the time, weather and transport schedules remained only in the central square. And then at some distance from the stop itself. On the other, only an electronic clock has been preserved. In the complex where the city administration has rusty structures, in the one next to the Philharmonic, the windows are broken.

Smart doesn’t mean happy. The fate of the fashionable stops in Izhevsk obviously did not work out. Today they are out of service. The reasons for this became known in September 2022, after residents complained about broken windows. It turns out that the city does not have a municipal contract for the maintenance of these types of complexes.

And what to do? To freeze, it seems, and without the Internet. “After the allocation of funds and the conclusion of a contract, the work will be completed. There are no specific deadlines,” the administration of the Udmurt capital told reporters.

Three smart pavilions with site preparation and installation cost the city more than 2.4 million rubles.

minus 24 degrees

In Penza, the air in January froze up to 24 degrees.

Here smart stops appeared at the end of last year. They look beautiful. Equipped with plug for recharging mobile phones, Wi-Fi. There is an electronic scoreboard where the arrival of public transport is displayed in real time.

Stops can be used as a navigator to local points of interest and social facilities if you create and download such an app. For this there is a touch screen. And at night they look like a piece of modern art thanks to the neon lighting.

But either there was not enough money, or the officials decided so, but the smart stops turned out to be empty. Nothing works: no plugs, no wifi, no electronic scoreboard. The touch screen is covered by a cardboard with the image of the Penza coat of arms. Patriotic, but not functional.

The only thing that works is the night light.

Already with the first frosts it became clear that light structures made of transparent glass did not protect against wind and snow. The inhabitants of the city wrote about this on social networks: “In a 30-degree frost, people, waiting for transport, hid behind advertising signs, because they protected better than new stops where the wind walks.” “Before there was a stop: 30 people could fit and they stayed dry in the rain…”. “Here, even in summer, you can catch a cold, what to speak of winter. Who are these stops for? Who comes up with such ideas?”

The first three stops were donated to the city by a private investor. Free. After that, similar structures began to appear in different parts of Penza.

The mayor’s office explained that the project is carried out under the principles of public-private partnership. The price of stopping the pavilions was not disclosed.

But on the Internet, similar pavilions cost from 100 thousand rubles without filling. It would take more than 30 million rubles to replace all the stops with smart ones. Necessary? If such dummies are obtained.

minus 30 degrees at night

In Yekaterinburg, the air temperature in January dropped to minus 30 degrees on January 9 at eight in the evening.

In the new year, the residents of Yekaterinburg felt the lack of warm stops. Unscheduled frosts tested the state of the city’s road network. The stops were the weak link. Now in the metropolis there are 1499 pavilions for waiting for transport, and only one of them is warm. For a region with a strongly continental climate, this is not enough, they believe the cold Urals.

The modernization of the stalls in Yekaterinburg began several years ago – the city authorities solved this problem in parallel with the liquidation of the stalls. Non-stationary commercial facilities took root mainly at stops and often served as a shelter for frozen passengers.

Now, most of the modern stops in the city center are a glazed metal frame in the shape of the letters G or P. “Elegant, but cold,” say the townspeople.

Of course, it’s nice that many stops have become smart at the same time, with interactive panels, scoreboards, phone chargers, an emergency button, and video cameras. But the lightweight construction of the European type does not save from strong wind, rain and even more so frost. And many smart panels were soon gone.

The history of the first “street smartphone” in the capital of the Middle Urals is also indicative. It was installed on the eve of the 2018 World Cup in the city center, next to the bus stop on Kommunarov Square. The huge production panel combined the functions of multimedia pointer, reference book and guide.

The developers ensured that with their help any Yekaterinburg or visitor to the city can determine its location on the map, get information about the history of the city and the nearest iconic objects in two languages ​​​​(Russian and English). It was even possible to shoot a video, greeting Yekaterinburg.

The city authorities hoped to cover the entire territory of the metropolis with such devices, in 500-meter increments. However, most people chose not to use a “big smartphone”, but their own.

In winter, the lack of demand for the panel was especially evident – not a single trace in the snowdrifts around. As a result, the “smartphone” was dismantled. And instead of an unsightly but warm commercial pavilion at the bus stop, there are two ventilated glass canopies with “hangers” for seating made of recycled plastic.

The only warm stop in the city today in the Solnechny microdistrict was built by the developer (except for a couple of similar ones near the Mega shopping center, this is also a private initiative). Most likely they will be the latter.

“The renovation of the stop complexes is ongoing. In recent years, 22 million rubles have been allocated for this purpose. But there are no plans to install warm stops,” Victoria Mkrtchyan, deputy head of the policy department of information from the mayor’s office. .

Meanwhile, a smart stop costs from 800 thousand to a million rubles, with installation and improvement.

However, there are successful experiences in the regions, and not so much, but the authorities are ready to rectify the situation.

Read in full in the next issue of Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

* This website provides news content gathered from various internet sources. It is crucial to understand that we are not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented Read More

Hansen Taylor
Hansen Taylor
Hansen Taylor is a full-time editor for ePrimefeed covering sports and movie news.
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