About a year after the Dallas Innovation Alliance, a non-profit organization promoting the public/private partnerships in the municipality’s tech sector, began “phase I” of its smart cities program, the group is moving forward with five new projects — with some help from AT&T and Toyota.

The five new projects in the DIA’s Smart Cities Living Lab is in the West End Historic District in downtown Dallas. In addition to AT&T and Toyota, other partners include Cisco, Ericsson, Current by GE, Philips, Itron, HydroPoint, ParkHub, EB Systems.

The new projects include a smart water management effort designed to promote conservation, a “smart parking” effort focused on traffic flow and spot availability from Dallas startup ParkHub; a public wi-fi initiative in the Living Lab led by the City of Dallas and powered by AT&T, Cisco, Nokia, and Scientel; AT&T Smart Cities Digital Infrastructure powered by City IQ by Current, which delivers nodes with initial applications that will include “TrafficPulse,” “ParkingView” and “CitySight,” respectively.

The mobility initiative with Toyota Motor North America in South Dallas, which is currently in the research phase.

The Dallas Innovation Alliance Smart Cities Living Lab got its start in March 2017 with an initial push by AT&T. The DIA is currently working with more than 20 city departments and 30 private partners to advance its smart cities offerings.

“Investing in smart cities technology is a commitment to address the needs of citizens today and in the future,” said Mike Zeto, general manager, AT&T Smart Cities. “The City of Dallas is doing important work, testing solutions that can lead to improved public safety, citizen engagement and environmental sustainability. Key learnings from the Living Lab will prove invaluable as we work to scale these types of solutions to more cities across the country.”

Over the past year, the Smart Cities concept has gone from theoretical to practical, as tech startups and enterprise companies have combined to focus on municipal and regional efforts from New York to San Francisco that promise to expand the use of connected street furniture, support for electric cars, and placing sensors in public transportation to develop safer traffic condition.

Even smaller cities, such as Providence, RI, which began partnering with hyperlocal tech company Loud-Hailer to launch its “Connected City” app, Providence2GO in November, have been moving more rapidly on Smart Cities programs.

In Dallas, the effort is already having an impact on its merchants, the DIA says. For example, Local West End businesses are employing data on foot traffic to best match marketing and operational investments to capture additional business. Revenue grew 16.9 percent year-over-year, and customer traffic data has shown nearly a 7 percent increase;

Meanwhile, Toyota’s work with the alliance is expected to be completed later this year.

“By creatively combining our know-how and resources and partnering with others, we can tackle problems that affect people’s ability to fulfill their potential and move in the world,” said Ryan Klem, who leads mobility programs for the Social Innovation team at Toyota Motor North America. “Together with Dallas Innovation Alliance, we look forward to deploying a mobility solution that helps improve quality of life for those in need in South Dallas.”