More Than Just a Bench

Governing: Between its bus stops, parks and plazas, Boston has thousands of benches. For the most part, they're just for sitting, but under a new pilot project, they could become data outposts for recording levels of heat, light and noise in public spaces, not to mention nearby pedestrian foot traffic. Boston and a handful of other large cities, including Jersey City, N.J., Boulder and Austin, have installed these "smart benches," which use solar panels to power mobile devices, such as phones and tablets. In the future, they'll be outfitted with a variety of sensors that will collect and share data with city agencies.

Read article