3rd MODERN Political Meeting & Roadshow

The City of Coimbra, Portuguese star of the MO- DERN Consortium, hosted the Third Political Me- eting and Roadshow on June 7, 2011. The event took place at the Pavilhão Centro de Portugal, in front of the Mondego River, and was organized in two main sessions; • Morning Political Meeting • Afternoon Technical Workshop on car-sharing

Mr. João Paulo Barbosa de Melo (Mayor of Coimbra), Mr. Fabio Rolfi (Deputy Mayor of the city of Brescia), Mr. Teodor Sas (Deputy Mayor of the city of Craiova) and Mr. Fernando Nunes da Silva (Councelor for Mobility in Lisbon) animated the morning discussion providing insights on their specific experiences on sustainable mobility at municipality level. Mr. Robert Stussi (Consultant, President of Portuguese Electric Vehicle Associa- tion) moderated the roundtable (Today-Tomorrow: Smart Cities and the Role of Mobility) Two important key-note speeches addressed the public. Mr. Bastian Fischer (Oracle, Vice-Pre- sident and General Manager at Oracle Utilities) presented the challenges and opportunities of e- mobility, introducing the audience to the innovative MOBI.E project (http://www.mobie.pt/). Ms. Isa- bel Seabra (Director for Planning, Innovation, and Evaluation of the Portuguese Institute for Mobility and Inland Transportation) focused on the importance of a national mobility package dedicated to the city network. Political and technical speakers discussed together the importance of applying smart solutions to mobility issues. New technologies have strong political impact. It is very important to allow citizens to acknowledge the importance of innovation in order to assure a successful utilization of the- se technologies and of sustainable transport ser- vices. “Clean and easy-to-use transport services are always successful, but it is very important to engage people in using them”.

Mr. Marco Mastretta (Director of ICS - Iniziativa Car Sharing, supported by the Environmental Ministry of Italy and Technical Coordinator of the MODERN Consortium) opened the afternoon session lecturing on car sharing and the optimal organisational model. He also moderated a technical session, which presented various car-sharing schemes at Euro- pean level and their major achievements. During the technical workshop Mr. Jorge Miranda Dias (Professor of Robotics and Information Systems at the University of Coimbra and Scientific Repre- sentative for CIVITAS Coimbra), Ms Inês Matos (Director of Carristur and responsible for Carris car sharing service in Lisbon), Mr. Paulo Leitão (Councillor for Mobility of the City of Coimbra) and Mr. Giandomenico Gangi (Brescia CS Measure Leader) discussed the main challenges and opportunities of a car-sharing system.

Please download MODERN e-newsletter number 4 for more information and indepth interviews

Authors: Holding Graz Linien, Filippo Dall'Oglio

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