Funchal is the capital of the Maderan archipelago, whose 104,000 inhabitants occupy an area of 75km2. It is known worldwide for achieving equilibrium between history and nature. Within the CIVITAS Forum 2011 it balanced an exchange of dialogue and views between city and European politicians on the one hand, and experts in the field of urban mobility on the other.
During the conference, 200 cities reaffirmed their commitment to sustainable urban transport through the Funchal Statement that contains recommendations to the EU and was handed over during the final plenary to Daniela Rosca, Head of Unit of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport. Cities also called for EU leaders to commit to long-term funding to help them realise their ambitions.
The conference was the 9th such annual event, following fora previously hosted in various quarters of Europe including Malmö, Krakow, Bologna, Kaunas, Burgos, Nantes, Rotterdam and Graz since the series started in 2003. The CIVITAS Forum Network currently includes 209 cities from 31 European countries, that have formally committed to clean and sustainable urban transport.
The city of Funchal was both an unusual and ideal location for the Forum, thanks to its specific geographical characteristics as one of the European Union’s outermost regions. Located 800km west of the coast of Morocco in the North Atlantic Ocean, it is deemed one of the most beautiful natural amphitheatres of the world. It thrives as a major tourist town yet is significantly challenged in offering viable transport solutions because of its hilly terrain.
Funchal has worked hard to give the city ‘back’ to its citizens and tourists by promoting smart mobility options, constructing ring roads and pedestrianising the city centre. Many of these successes were on display at Forum 2011 as it invited participants to discover urban mobility in a very different context from mainland EU cities - an outermost island context! At the same time, Funchal's contributions to CIVITAS MIMOSA (and its to Funchal) were demonstrated through site visits to its limited traffic zones and innovative transport modes for tourists in hilly areas as well as to its green line bike transport and electric clean bus fleet.
Queries for further information can be submitted via email to: secretariat [at] civitas [dot] eu.
“Soltráfego is a Portuguese tech company dealing in the urban mobility engineering and ITS (Intelligent Transports Systems) business.
With over 15 years market experience, Soltráfego is a major reference in project development, installation and service in the traffic, parking and urban mobility markets.
Focused on innovation, flexibility, sustainability and partnership, Soltráfego was responsible for the design and installation of over 2.500 traffic lights and speed control systems and 350 parking and access control solutions in the local and overseas markets, including the project, installation and maintenance of the priority, detection and traffic control solution of 'Metro do Porto'.
Responding to a market and portfolio diversification strategy, Soltráfego offers solutions for tunnel, highways and light rail (signalling and safety), assuming partnerships with major companies.”
Founded in 1992, TIS started as a economic grouping of companies with the main objective of supporting the Lisbon subway (Metropolitano de Lisboa) and Public Transport operator of Porto (STCP, Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos do Porto) in their strategic development efforts. After that phase, the company was relaunched in January, 2000 as TIS.pt – Consultores em Transportes Inovação e Sistemas, S.A.. a public limited liability company. In fact, TIS had transformed itself into a fully fledged consultancy, operating in domestic and international markets and working on a much wider spectrum of transport problems.
TIS.pt is recognized in international transport consultancy and has achieved consistent growth in turnover and in geographical reach. This evolution justified turning the company into a public limited liability company which is the sole heir to the competence, traditions and experience of the former company, but now with the benefit of a greater equity and a more effective legal status in support of its evolution.
TIS’s mission is to generate value for its clients and shareholders in the area of mobility and transports, working with high ethical standards and based on solutions which are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.
Since the end of the nineties, an important part of TIS work has been developed under research and development contracts with the European Commission, in which it acted as leader of Consortium, namely in relevant projects on 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Framework Programmes for Urban Transport and Transportation Environmental Policies. Those consortia comprised some of the more prestigious academic specialists and institutional entities from European Union, Switzerland and Norway. TIS is in to top 20 SME participant organizations in FP7 signed grant agreements (2007-2010).
Hydrogenics is a leading provider of hydrogen infrastructure and fuel cell solutions.
Started in 1948, we have over 60 years experience with electrolysis technology and electrolysis-based hydrogen fueling stations.
Thanks to our commitment, we provide you a zero emission solution for the refueling of your hydrogen busses and vehicles
Logica is a business and technology service company, employing 41,000 people. It provides business consulting, systems integration and outsourcing to clients around the world, including many of Europe's largest businesses. Logica creates value for clients by successfully integrating people, business and technology. It is committed to long term collaboration, applying insight to create innovative answers to client's business needs.
OPT has started its activity in 1997 as a result of an R&D project involving 2 universities and 5 of the largest Portuguese bus transport companies. It is the first company in Portugal to develop intelligent and automatic solutions for decision support in transport planning.
OPT mission includes an excellent service in innovative and optimized systems for transport planning, management and public information.
OPT is responsible for GIST, a decision support system to optimized operational planning in public transport companies and is also focused in innovative products and services for improving passenger information.
In 2007, OPT has invested on a new business area, the Public Information. From a partnership with the FWT company (from London), OPT has been developing systems that automate the production of the stop information (printed or online) – the INFOPUB system – as well as producing information maps for different areas in the city – the SPIDERMAPS system.
OPT has expertise in complex operational problems: transport planning, systems integration, intelligent transportation systems, passenger information, and demand responsive transport.
OPT is involved in a European project - CIVITAS Elan - leading the measure 8.8 – Transport Telematics – Mobile Mobility Information – which integrates real time information of several PT operators keeping the consistency among all the geo-referenced information; offers to the users optimized information to support their mobility needs and specifications; and adapts the usage of planning algorithms to a dynamic situation in real time, indicating the quality attributes associated with the several proposals.
TECNOBUS S.p.A. is the Italian company first in Europe for its exclusive and concrete commitment for the environment protection and safeguard of the precious historical heritage of most European towns. Its activity started 20 years ago and is based in the production and assembly facilities of Frosinone in Via Pietrarotonda km 1,100, Località Mola dei Frati.
The manufacturing plant, extending over an area of 10.000 sheltered square metres, deals exclusively with the design, research, development and assembly of battery-driven electric buses. TECNOBUS is a RINA and IQ NET certified company for the Environmental Management System and for the Quality
Management System, pursuant to standard UNI EN ISO 14001:2004 and UNI EN ISO 9001:2008, for the design and production of electric buses and associated spare parts through the assembly and mounting phases.
TECNOBUS production is exclusive and peculiar in that, since its very origins, the Company has decided to center its activities on the design, manufacturing and production of different versions of electric buses intended for urban public transport. Thanks to its extreme and specific technical skills and competences , TECNOBUS can design and develop its own products without having recourse, not even partially as concerns applied components, to conventional type vehicles transformed and adapted to electric-driven versions. This is a prerogative peculiar to our Company and has no comparison and application in any other product available. As witnessed by the continuous evolution of our products over the years, the base projects and their specific applications have always been TECNOBUS exclusive property and it is thanks to our technicians, exclusively specialized in the electric bus research and development applied to public transport, that it has always been possible to assure a continuous innovation of our product, in its different versions, thus making our buses more and more reliable and accessible.
EATON Corporation is a diversified power management company with 2010 sales of $13.7 billion. Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2011, Eaton is a global technology leader in hybrid systems for commercial vehicles, truck and automotive drivetrain and powertrain systems for performance, fuel economy and safety, electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution and control; hydraulics components, systems and services for industrial and mobile equipment; aerospace fuel, hydraulic and pneumatic systems for commercial use. Eaton has approximately 70,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 150 countries.
Transportes em Revista is the main Portuguese magazine about transports, mobility and logistics. Every month our efforts go towards keeping the sector informed about the latest news and political and technological development. Moreover, we try to keep the debate opened between all those who give their contribute to mobility. Monthly, we distribute 10.000 copies of the magazine among transport’s operators, consultants, building enterprises, architects, urban planners, decision-makers, local and central power and Government.
Transportes em Revista also developed a portal on the web where you can find real time news about the sector. The page is constantly updated following the news streaming. With more than 140.000 page views monthly, is, without doubt, the main digital platform to get inside the transport world.
On a weekly basis we also send every top news to more than 25.000 contacts, in the form of a special newsletter, Transportes Online, which as long proved its worth to the sector in Portugal.
