5G networks no doubt have the technological specs necessary to power smart cities, but without careful design and planning the complexity of integrating everything from traffic to health care could prove overwhelming

Long-touted advances of smart cities may finally become reality with the increases to wireless network speeds and bandwidths promised by the switch to 5G. Seamless integration of our homes, cities and utilities can change the way we interact with everything from grocery stores to doctors.

Yesterday evening the European Commission announced the winners of the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Awards 2018, and the 7th Award for Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning (SUMP) at a ceremony in Brussels (Belgium). 

Lisbon was revealed as the winner of the EUROPEANMOBILITYWEEK Award 2018 for larger municipalities, with Lindau taking home the award for smaller municipalities. The 7th SUMP Award was won by Greater Manchester.  Click on the following video links to view this years finalists in action:

The full set of fact sheets chronicling the innovative mobility measures being implemented within CIVITAS ECCENTRIC are now available. The fact sheets cover the five cities involved in the project. They are Madrid (Spain); Munich (Germany), Ruse (Bulgaria), Stockholm (Sweden); and Turku (Finland). 

The fact sheets outline key details relating to each of their respective solutions, including:

Adjusting the starting times of teaching hours at has worked very well against overcrowded trains and buses in the City of Nijmegen (The Netherlands). Even on the main access roads to the Campus Heyendaal, the location of three major educational institutes, the impact is noticeable.

Overcrowded public transport and congestion

Cars already make use of navigation systems to find their way, including using real time data to avoid congestion as much as possible. Now, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Viennese start-up “Parkbob” have teamed up to develop satellite-based services for traffic management and urban planning. One of the aims of the cooperation is to transfer well-developed trip navigation approaches, which have been proven to work, to the search for a parking space.