"The video game SimCity is addictive because of the simplicity of its underlying model." I got intrigued as soon as I read this from Townsend's book Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia (2013). Indeed, I grew up playing these simulation games, from SimCity, Roller Coaster Tycoon, to Animal Crossing, and I believe a lot of you did too. They are amazing - you get to effortlessly design your own world, through days (and possibly nights) of mouse clicking and button pressing.
I wonder why these games didn't inspire more people to study city planning, because they are one of the reasons that got me into the profession. There were fun (and long) times that I spent experimenting with my roller coasters designs to raise riders happiness, moving police stations and firehouses around to get maximum coverage, and swimming in the ocean for an hour to earn more money from selling the sea creatures to Timmy and Tommy's. It would be so cool to influence a city's design in real life, the 17 years old me thought.
There are lots of narrow alleys in Beijing, which a lot of locals took advantage of for informal parking, making the narrow alleys even harder to navigate. During high school, I did an independent research project on parking problems. Focusing on one such alley, I examined how parking problems originated and how they could be alleviated. I referenced a parking policy handbook and found a table documenting how parking spots should be designed. I proceeded by measuring the informal parking spots and finding them to be incorrect. I concluded my projects by calling for better policies and law enforcement as well as recommending smart parking garages. I could study city planning, the 18 years old me thought.
I thought I would be taught lots of established, successful policies and guidelines to resolve challenges and problems in cities. Then I can develop a city like how players can develop their own islands in Animal Crossing. However, that was not the case. I spent much more time studying established, unsuccessful cases and analyzing how to improve them. That frustrated me for a while, because I felt like I did not learn authoritative planning methods. In fact, I realized that there may not be objective planning methods at all.
The world that the simulation games created are simulations. No matter what advanced mathematical models and sophisticated algorithms they applied to simulate real-world phenomenon, they are always approximations. Unlike subjects that are hard sciences, there is no theory in city planning as a social science that holds truth universally so far. Cities are simply too complicated a system for any genius to simulate accurately to the full extent. (I just finished an essay on the theory and practice of smart cities. If I got a good grade endorsing my understanding of the topic, I might blog about it later.)
"Duh," you might be thinking right now. "Of course I'm not going to confuse the real world with games." But what if the real world is turning into games? Think about it - What are your reactions when you heard about "smart cities"? Is it a utopian city where everyone served by robots living happily ever after, or is it a dystopian city where a lot of bad things can happen? The ideology of scientific cities might be influencing your perception of your life without you noticing, like how I anticipated learning "game-winning" city plans in the real world. Especially, with the rapid development of technologies and propagation of the "smart cities" concept, you see and hear news about technology breakthroughs telling you "something can fix some problems" and "something will make your life better". It is important for you to know that, science and technology cannot fix all problems. At least not sometime soon. And they might create problems, as they always have.
On an individual level, when a new, shiny gadget comes out, think about why you need it before you get too invested in it. For city planning, there are a lot more for policy-makers to look into. IBM's former Vice President Banavar said, "I strongly believe we should give them [mayors in municipal governments] the right tools and the right data to be better managers," as IBM exported their new technology and management playbook to the rest of the world (Townsend, 2013). However, city management is neither business management nor science experiment. Can new technology and management playbook guarantee a smart city? The answer is obvious. Relating back to my parking project, parking policies could be widely adopted at first but become outdated later. Informal parking is illegal and annoying for people driving by, but it is a forced solution for those who need parking. Planners can recommend smart garages to alleviate the problems in the near future, but eventually, new challenges will occur and the plans will need to be updated.
Currently, there are trends of gamification of cities, as I have learned this semester. PokemonGo, a 2016 game that integrated reality with digital features, could be used to gather people's opinions towards public spaces. Collab, a website being a part of SidewalkLab's Quayside project, enables citizens to design communities like playing a simulation game. There are also apps that could potentially reward citizens for following social-distancing guidelines by tracking their movements. There are as many opportunities as there are risks, giving planners lots of space to make improvements. Where do you stand for smart cities?
Reference
Townsend, A. M. (2013). Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers, and the Quest for a New Utopia. W. W. Norton.
虚拟城市和智慧城市 - 城市规划的游戏化
“电子游戏《模拟城市》之所以令人上瘾是因为其简单性。”汤森（Townsend）的著作《智慧城市：大数据，公民黑客和对新乌托邦的追求》里的这句话让我恍然大悟。确实，我从小就喜欢玩这些模拟游戏，从《模拟城市》、《过山车大亨》、到最近流行的《动物森友会》，每个都令人着迷。我相信你们中的很多人也喜欢过这种模拟经营游戏。它们令人上瘾 - 通过数天（甚至数夜）的鼠标单击和按钮操作，玩家可以轻松设计自己的世界。
我想知道为什么这些游戏没有激发更多人学习城市规划的兴趣，因为它们是促使我学习城市规划的原因之一。我花了很多时间在过山车大亨里设计过山车轨道，以提高游客的幸福感；在模拟城市里四处移动警局和消防站，以获得最大的覆盖面；在动物森友会的海里游泳一个小时，通过寻找和出售海洋生物来赚钱。17岁的时候我想着，如果我在现实生活中也能规划城市那就太酷了。
北京有很多狭窄的小巷，很多当地人利用它门来停车。这使得狭窄的小巷更加难以通行。高中时，我做了一个关于停车问题的研究项目，研究停车问题的产生和解决方法。我参考了停车政策，找到了一个停车位设计准则。于是我测量了停车位，发现它们不符合规定。所以，我在文章结尾呼吁采取更好的政策和执法措施，并推荐了智能停车库。18岁的我觉得我可以学习城市规划。
于是我开始学。我以为我会被教受许多成熟、成功的方法来解决城市中的挑战和问题。然后我就可以像玩家在动物森友会中发展自己的岛屿一样，发展一个城市。但事实并非如此。我花了更多的时间研究已建立但未成功的案例，并分析如何改进它们。这让我很沮丧，因为我觉得我没有学习权威的规划方法。后来，我意识到，可能根本不存在客观的规划方法。模拟游戏创建的世界就是模拟的。无论他们使用多么先进的数学模型和复杂的算法来模拟现实世界的现象，它们始终是模拟世界。与硬科学学科不同，迄今为止，城市规划中没有任何理论可以作为普遍真理指导学科。任何一个天才都不可能准确模拟这么复杂的城市系统。
“ 当然了，”你可能现在正在想。 “我肯定不会将游戏与现实世界混淆的。”但是，如果现实世界正在变成游戏呢？想一想 - 当你听到“智慧城市”时，你想到了什么？是一个乌托邦式的城市，每个人都过着幸福快乐的生活，还是一个反乌托邦式的城市，可能会发生很多坏事？科学至上的信念可能会潜意识地影响你对生活的看法，就像我之前认为城市规划会像游戏胜利一般简单一样。特别是现在，随着技术的飞速发展和“智慧城市”概念的传播，你会听到各种技术突破的消息，告诉你“某些科技可以解决一些问题”和“某些科技可以使生活变得更好”。但事实上，科学技术不能解决所有问题。至少目前不行。而且他们可能会像历史上任何一个工具一样制造问题。
在个人层面上，当一个新的，闪亮的小工具问世时，请你在购买之前考虑一下为什么需要它。对于城市规划，决策者还有很多需要研究的方面。 IBM前副总裁Banavar表示：“我坚信，我们应该为他们（市政府市长）提供正确的工具和正确的数据，以成为更好的管理者。”（Townsend，2013）但是，城市管理既不是商业管理也不是科学实验。新技术和管理标准能保证智慧城市的建设，一劳永逸吗？答案是显而易见的。举例，回到我的停车项目。停车政策最初可能是被广泛采用的，但后来它过时了。非正式停车对开车经过的人来说是违法的，是烦人的；但对于那些需要停车的人来说，这是一个没办法的解决方案。规划人员可以建议使用智能车库，以在不久的将来缓解这些问题，但是最终，新的挑战又会出现，并且计划又会需要更新。
目前城市游戏化很有趋势。2016年的PokemonGo游戏将现实与虚拟空间融为一体，可用于收集人们对公共空间的看法。Collab是SidewalkLab Quayside项目的一部分，该网站使公民能够像玩虚拟游戏一样设计社区。疫情时期，还有一些应用程序可以通过跟踪人们的活动，来奖励遵循社交距离的公民。机遇与风险同在，计划者有很多可以作为的空间。你对智慧城市有什么看法呢？