All Things Considered ran an interesting story the other day on how free Wi-Fi on public buses can open the door to much greater community benefit than free Wi-Fi on the buses. But let’s start with that – free Wi-Fi on the buses. I just ran a story on how useful that is for school kids in Mille Lacs County – why wouldn’t the rest of the community benefit too? It allows people to have enough broadband on the buses to get work done (think webinar or Skye as you ride) and it saves everyone’s data plan.

According to the story, that’s just the beginning…

The service not only provides commuters with free Internet connections but also helps collect data that make the municipality run more efficiently.

That data helps power and hone the Internet of Moving Things…

Veniam sells the city Wi-Fi routers and a monthly subscription. Citizens get free Wi-Fi, without having to drain their mobile data plans. In return, the city gets a host of data collected by the Wi-Fi routers from a network of sensors planted around town.

“Environmental sensors, noise sensors. … In the end, what this project has given to the city is a lot of data,” says Filipe Araujo, Porto’s city councilor for innovation and environment. “We can understand where the city can save money, to invest in other projects. Waste management has the key role here.”

For instance, sensors attached to garbage dumpsters tell the network when the dumpsters are full. The city saves money since it doesn’t waste fuel on trips to half-full containers. It can also see which buses are stuck in traffic and reroute them, or change traffic lights in real time.