London tops EasyPark future-proof city list

  • October 25, 2021
  • Steve Rogerson

London is the most intelligent and future-proof city out of those with a population of over three million, followed by New York and San Francisco, according to Swedish parking technology firm EasyPark.

Copenhagen ranks as the most intelligent and future-proof city with a population between 600,000 and three million, followed by Stockholm and Oslo. For cities with a population between 50,000 and 600,000, Lund came out on top followed by Stavanger and Espoo.

EasyPark released its study about the most intelligent and future-proof cities in the world that reveals which cities are best adopting new technology to improve their sustainability and liveability. As a mobility innovator, the company set out to determine which global smart cities were leading the way in embracing technological advancements, and proving themselves to be cities of the future.

“Many governments are stepping up their responses to climate change and innovations often begin in major cities before filtering out to the rest of the country,” said Johan Birgersson, CEO of EasyPark Group. “Many of the highest scoring cities in the index score well for high electric car usage and low CO2 emissions rates and, while cities continue to expand, mobility is taking on an increasingly important role in people’s day-to-day lives. While the world faces challenges relating to climate change, some of the most technologically advanced cities around the world have already adopted innovative services to optimise traffic flow and ease mobility to make the city more liveable.”

The study began by assessing several thousand cities around the world and looked at those smart cities that were leading the way in implementing the use of new technologies. The study established the factors that determine how technologically advanced and sustainable a city was and scored the locations accordingly. To do this, the study retrieved data from sources such as the World Bank, Economist, International Monetary Fund and Lancet.

Four key areas were considered. Firstly, the digital life of each city was studied by assessing how widely technology had been adopted by the population, the government and within the healthcare sector. It also reviewed the success and reputation of technology educational institutions in each urban area.

Next, the study focused on mobility innovation. To do this, researchers looked at how innovative parking was within each city, the overall traffic management system including public transport, and how clean was transport in the city.

Following this, the study considered each city’s business tech infrastructure. To do this, the level of business innovation, prevalence of e-payments and quality of internet connectivity in each location was measured.

Finally, the environmental sustainability of each city was evaluated by analysing green energy usage, the number of green buildings, the waste management system and the overall climate change response and planning.

For cities with more than three million inhabitants, the top ten were:

  1. London, UK 100.00
  2. New York, USA 95.84
  3. San Francisco, USA 94.43
  4. Singapore 94.21
  5. Berlin, Germany 92.58
  6. Rotterdam, Netherlands 91.44
  7. Seattle, USA 90.40
  8. Seoul, South Korea 87.50
  9. Washington DC, USA 86.77
  10. Manchester, UK 85.34

The top ten of the world’s leading medium and smaller sized cities with populations between 600,000 and three million were:

  1. Copenhagen, Denmark 100.00
  2. Stockholm, Sweden 99.84
  3. Oslo, Norway 98.48
  4. Amsterdam, Netherlands 96.57
  5. Zurich, Switzerland 94.04
  6. Gothenburg, Sweden 88.93
  7. Helsinki, Finland 87.92
  8. Boston, USA 84.65
  9. Utrecht, Netherlands 83.13
  10. Edinburgh, UK 79.82

And for cities with a population between 50,000 and 600,000:

  1. Lund, Sweden 100.00
  2. Stavanger, Norway 88.75
  3. Espoo, Finland 88.07
  4. Malmo, Sweden 87.49
  5. Aalborg, Denmark 87.09
  6. Aarhus, Denmark 86.88
  7. Trondheim, Norway 85.25
  8. Bergen, Norway 84.77
  9. Porvoo, Finland 81.35
  10. Cambridge, UK 81.17

The below list shows the best ranking big cities with a population over three million within the area of green energy. A higher score indicates a higher usage of energy from renewable sources.

  1. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 100.00
  2. Seattle, USA 91.96
  3. Montreal, Canada 85.62
  4. Toronto, Canada 85.62
  5. Santiago, Chile 77.06
  6. San Diego, USA 74.92
  7. San Francisco, USA 74.92
  8. Los Angeles, USA 74.92
  9. Berlin, Germany 72.95
  10. Cologne and Bonn, Germany 72.95

The next list shows the cities with a population over three million where citizens are best at adopting new technologies:

  1. San Francisco, USA 100.00
  2. New York, USA 93.62
  3. Seoul, South Korea 91.33
  4. Washington DC, USA 90.92
  5. Berlin, Germany 89.82
  6. Seattle, USA 89.55
  7. Atlanta, USA 89.29
  8. Miami, USA 89.05
  9. Singapore 88.98
  10. Toronto, Canada 88.69

Finally, the next list shows the best ranking big cities for parking innovation:

  1. London, UK 100.00
  2. Manchester, UK 94.63
  3. Berlin, Germany 92.42
  4. Paris, France 91.31
  5. Tokyo, Japan 87.34
  6. Rotterdam, Netherlands 86.00
  7. San Francisco, USA 85.59
  8. Barcelona, Spain 84.95
  9. Madrid, Spain 84.30
  10. Cologne and Bonn, Germany 83.77

“It is interesting to see patterns in development forming within continents,” said Birgersson. “While metropolitan areas in Europe score well across the various size categories, the study shows that Scandinavian cities all rank particularly highly. It is evident that these countries are at the cutting edge of adopting new technologies. Looking at urban areas with between 600,000 and three million inhabitants, fifty per cent of the top ten cities are in Scandinavia. This is also the case for cities with between 50,000 and 600,000 inhabitants, where 90 per cent of the top ten are from these countries. It is clear that Scandinavian nations are doing all they can to provide sustainable and liveable environments for their citizens.”

EasyPark is a parking tech company that helps drivers find and manage parking and charge their electrical vehicle. Its technology is used in 3200 cities across 27 countries.