By Mark Santos, CAPP

Interest in smart and connected communities continues to grow as the public explores and better understands the associated benefits including data-driven decision making, increased safety, sustainable initiatives, improved transportation, upgraded infrastructure, and enhanced quality of life. Lake Nona, a 17-square mile community in Orlando located near the Orlando International Airport, is a premier real-world example of a smart and connected community.

The Tavistock Development Company developed the Lake Nona community as a desire for a smarter, more sustainable everyday live, work, and play happenings inspired by the future of design, technology, and human experience to create long-term value in community developments. Lake Nona creates a community that’s not just smart, but smart with a purpose. That means implementing technology not just for the sake of implementing technology. Instead, Lake Nona strives to implement technology that encourages collaboration.

When people are brought together, amazing things happen. By providing the environment and solutions that fuel collaboration, residents, businesses, and visitors are empowered to create smart, purpose-driven solutions that remove friction, enhance the human experience, and solve urban-scale problems. This concept of “innovative collaboration” has propelled Lake Nona into the vibrant, exciting community it is today.

An example of Lake Nona’s living lab in action is our Move Nona autonomous shuttle program. Since launching in September 2019, these all-electric shuttles have been used in place of more than 10,000 vehicle trips that would have emitted thousands of pounds of CO2 into the air. Lake Nona integrates mobility within the community and elevates a user’s parking experience through effective design layouts, the implementation of parking guidance systems, and treating facades as works of art.

Mark Santos, CAPP, is a practice leader at DESMAN. Along with Juan Santos and Isaac Nadeau, Tavistock Development), he will present on this topic at the 2021 IPMI Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo, November 29-December 2.