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2015 Polis Conference debates urban mobility in making the city smarter

At the 2015 Polis conference, taking place in Brussels this week, 400 mobility professionals from across Europe and beyond have come together to debate urban and regional mobility. European Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, Commissioner for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness said at the conference's opening plenary session on "Smart Cities. What's in a name? Talented people want to work in smart sustainable cities. Polis is a crucial network in helping cities to share and to get access to know-ho
November 20, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
%$Linker: 2 Internal <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 4 9782 0 oLinkInternal <span class="oLinkInternal"><span class="oLinkInternal">RSS</span></span> Events (Diary) false /rss/events/ true false%>At the 2015 Polis conference, taking place in Brussels this week, 400 mobility professionals from across Europe and beyond have come together to debate urban and regional mobility.

European Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, Commissioner for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness said at the conference's opening plenary session on "Smart Cities. What's in a name? Talented people want to work in smart sustainable cities. Polis is a crucial network in helping cities to share and to get access to know-how and proven practice in other countries than their own."

Polis also launched its new policy paper Sustainable Urban Mobility and the Smart City, which states that the role and potential of urban mobility in making the city smarter is currently not sufficiently recognised.

Karen Vancluysen, Polis secretary general said at the plenary session: "The Smart City knows what it wants, knows how to intervene, is interested to assess results and change course if needed, and in this process is able to take everybody along. The current European framework for smart cities, with focus on ICT, Energy and Transport is rather narrow. ICT is an enabler of many smart mobility measures, but still, not all transport solutions need ICT to make them smart."

"Smart cities are going to be more than technology. We therefore encourage and support Polis to put the citizens at the heart of a smart cities vision", said Jon Lamonte, CEO 817 Transport for Greater Manchester and Chair Passenger Transport Executive Group.

The 2015 Polis Conference has also marked the launch of Polis' new 'Global Platform' allowing local governments from beyond Europe to become associated Polis members, the release of the latest edition of Thinking Cities and the launch of the CH4LLENGE project's SUMP self-assessment tool.

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