Vienna is seeing the introduction of more encounter zones – ‘Begegnungszonen' in German – in order to improve the quality of public space in the city. 

The schools in the UK city of Coventry have a problem in common with many other schools Europe-wide: unsafe roads around schools resulting from high levels of traffic, the largest part of which caused by parents dropping off their children directly at the school gate right before classes start.

Rotterdam's efforts to encourage people to use off-street parking is mainly achieved through pricing policies. The city is also reducing the number of on-street parking places allowing more public space to be used for people rather than parked cars. By 2020, 3,000 parking spaces should be removed from the inner city within the Park4SUMP project. Many of these spaces will be replaced with green spaces, walking areas, bike lanes and bicycle parking garages.

Watch the video and transfer this approach to your city.

After several years of testing, Vienna will roll-out smart traffic lights from autumn 2019, when the first tranche of crossings will be equipped with a camera and the corresponding software. The new smart traffic lights will gradually replace approximately 200 existing push-button lights in Vienna. Using a small camera, smart traffic lights detect when a pedestrian is approaching and then observes pedestrians’ direction and behaviour to predict whether the person really wants to cross the road or is just walking past the traffic light.

The Scottish government is about to introduce an amendment to the Scottish Transport Bill that will give local councils in the country the option of introducing a workplace parking levy. By doing this, it is taking up a pledge of the Scottish Greens and hopes to reduce congestion in Scottish municipalities. The respective amendments to the bill will be introduced before the summer.