City: Cali, Colombia

Reporting to: Civil Engineer and AI Specialist

The Challenge

Urban mobility in Santiago de Cali faces delays in residents’ daily journeys between their workplaces, educational institutions, healthcare services, and other locations. These delays are affected by the condition of the road network, traffic accidents, rain-induced flooding, the planning of established routes, access to information for both residents and administrators, and cultural influences like the reluctance to use the city’s mass transit system. For example, travel times across different parts of the city can increase by two to four times due to these factors directly impacting urban mobility and residents’ quality of life.

Cali has a population of more than 2.8 million people, and improving urban mobility is one of the mayor’s key priorities. Under the leadership of the Minister of Transport, the city has established a Mobility Commission that is committed to using data to develop a long-term mobility strategy for the city. Currently, the district administration has implemented several measures to manage and control local traffic, including:

• Planning an intelligent traffic light system
• Implementing “pico y placa,” a restriction that limits vehicle circulation, particularly for cars, based on license plate numbers and the day of the week. This measure aims to discourage car use and reduce traffic load on the road network
• Improving the road network to reduce vehicle deceleration caused by road conditions
• Implementing changes in urban traffic by altering the direction of strategic road axes.
• Developing pedestrianization plans, e.g., the 5th Street Project
• Promoting the use of urban public transportation

Data is available from across these initiatives (and other sources), but more work is required to use this data to inform decisions effectively. Reviewing the data, identifying advanced analytical processes and methods, and leveraging AI is a priority for the Mobility Commission. Through this work, the city hopes to reduce travel times, alleviate the stress associated with daily commutes, reduce exposure to pollution by minimizing time spent in traffic, and promote greater productivity. This project will utilize the city’s Racial Equity Instrument–a specific method to determine the benefit and burden of any policy changes. This project will encourage a greater level of collaboration across key stakeholders, such as community organizations and city departments.

Key questions for the fellow include:

• What mobility data do we have, and how can we use it to inform policy development?
• How can we implement intelligent traffic management technologies to monitor and enhance vehicle flow in real time?

• What does the data signal about where and how to integrate AI with the current traffic technology?

• How can we optimize and promote mass public transportation to decrease reliance on private vehicles?

What You’ll Do

To address these questions, the fellow will engage with key internal stakeholders, including the Department of Mobility, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Infrastructure, the Office for Risk and Emergency Management, and other departments and offices of Santiago de Cali’s district government. The city already has relationships with key external stakeholders, including urban transportation innovation companies, automotive dealerships, Metrocali, transport industry associations, local businesses, and the general public.

The fellow would work closely with Cali’s civil engineers and AI specialists who lead the city’s efforts to develop a strategy for data-driven solutions to key urban mobility challenges. Specifically, the fellow would be responsible for the following deliverables:

• Data audit
  • Create an inventory listing all existing data sources and physical and digital tools currently available for obtaining data on mobility, urban traffic, and vehicular accidents in Cali. This includes accident and traffic statistics, infrastructure data, Waze and Google Maps APIs, meteorological data, etc.
• Approaches to data analysis
  • Engage with internal and external stakeholders to understand the needs for data analysis
  • Conduct research to learn about other city’s approaches to mobility data collection, analysis, and publication, with a focus on the use of AI and Computer Vision algorithms
  • Develop recommendations around the use of mobility data going forward
• Strategic planning
  • For one key area or mobility goal, e.g., reduced travel time, work with key stakeholders to explore where and how AI might be integrated with current traffic technology
  • Develop a high-level strategy or plan describing how Cali can use existing data to inform key decisions and what additional data might be required
• Report and presentation
  • Summarize key findings from the data audit, research, and strategic planning and share with the Mobility Committee

What You’ll Bring

• Data analysis
• Design thinking
• Mapping (GIS)
• Qualitative interviewing and analysis
• Language fluency in Spanish (required)