Transport for Smart Cities 2016

Transport for Smart Cities 2016

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The City of Bremen represented the SHARE-North project at the invitation-only “Transport for Smart Cities 2016: Scaling Innovation in Europe” event hosted by the European Commission in Brussels on January 28th, 2016. The goal of the event was to discuss innovative transport solutions that will contribute to a sustainable, “smart”, economically stable and liveable Europe with representatives from high-level government, industry, research sectors.

The focus was largely on urban transport and while technological solutions also played a role, the importance of behavioural changes and the development of not only economic capital but also social and knowledge capital were emphasised by the European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc. At the event, the City of Bremen made a plea for “low-tech and no-tech solutions”, which are often just as smart, if not smarter, then high-tech solutions when it comes to solving urban mobility problems and the topic of shared mobility was high on the agenda and the topic of many discussions.

A total of 46 round table discussions were held at the event, of which the City of Bremen hosted three titled: “’Factor 100’ – why it is so important to focus more on the electrification of public transport?”, “Automated transport modes – between increase of car use and new fleet models”, and “From today’s standard of individual car-ownership to mobility services – A step toward greater transport efficiency”, all of which sought to challenge the notion that technological developments alone have the ability to solve all of our transport problems.

Each presentation, though with a different area of focus, advocated an integrated approach to transport planning and that efficient collective transport (electric busses and trams and car-sharing) in combination with other forms of sustainable transportation (mainly walking and cycling) as the only SMART approach to transport in cities.
More about the event as well as the presentations available for download can be found here: www.smartmobility2016.eu

01 Feb 2016