Street Bump in Boston

This is a key point in the era of declining investment in public infrastructure; most cities are stuck with the infrastructure they currently have, at least in the short term.  Without money for all their infrastructure requirements, the key becomes the integration of infostructure with infrastructure - - exploiting the data generated by physical infrastructure gives cities a chance to upgrade it more effectively and efficiently.

Potholes in Boston, for instance, are reported automatically if the drivers of the cars that hit them have an app called Street Bump on their smartphones.  "Bumps" are identified  using the device's accelerometer and located using its GPS.  Bumps are uploaded to the server for analysis.  Likely road problems are submitted to the City via Open311, so they get fixed (e.g., potholes) or classifies as known obstacles (e.g., speed bumps).