Marcos Schlickmann

1. You are currently urban mobility consultant at OPT. Can you tell us a bit about this position and about your journey and professional experience?

2. How do you think mobility planning in portuguese cities has evolved?

Mobility planning has evolved significantly in portuguese cities. There is a growing concern in municipal councils to try to understand and quantify the impacts that the options of the various actors, both public and private, have on the municipal territory.

Many municipalities already have specific plans for this area, such as Mobility Plans, Road Safety, Urban Logistics, Zones 30 and the promotion of Soft Modes. However, there is still much to be done, especially in smaller municipalities. Moreover, a good number of municipalities fail to execute the plan measures, or lack political support, or lack of qualified and available technical personnel for these tasks.

3. What benefits come from a well planned mobility?

Basically, our mobility is already reasonably well planned, but only for one means of transport: the private car. For this means of transport, the citizen hardly needs to think. The system is so well done that the choice is already made for us: you go by car and that's it. While by bus or bicycle, the citizen needs to think about dozens of factors such as the price of the ticket, the complexity of the network, safety, comfort, the distance traveled on foot to and from the stop, bicycle parking at the destination, the existence of dedicated bike paths or infrastructure. For the car, there is no need to think about anything. Everything is prepared for it.

In the end, a well planned mobility seeks to change the focus: to think of people in a multimodal approach. We must make all people move quickly, safely, comfortably and inexpensively.

4. This year's European Mobility Week had as its main theme "Zero Emissions, Mobility for all". How can we put this objective into practice?

To begin with, and as I mentioned above, it involves putting into practice the plans that have already been approved by the municipalities. There is no point in aiming at a multimodal city on paper, with low emissions, safe and accessible, if we don't execute these measures and monitor its performance on the ground.

5. In your opinion, how does OPT contribute to the development of Smart Cities?

OPT participates in projects that cover the theme of Smart Cities. On the other hand, and considering that the Smart City concept includes the need to collect, process and distribute information to the public, OPT develops several public information products, such as App Move-me, InfoPub, InfoBoard, SpiderMaps, SMSBUS.

6. Being from Brazil, how do you see the development of a Smart City in Europe compared to South America? What are the main challenges?

Brazil is moving more slowly than Europe in developing this concept. However, there are already some partnerships between universities and municipalities that are trying to test concepts, such as the one being developed in Florianópolis.

Perhaps the main challenges are similar to those we already know in other areas: the bureaucratic obstacles present in many south american countries and the lack of incentives and adequate funding mechanisms for research and investigation.

7. How can Smart Cities improve the quality of life of the population?

Technology should be a means to improve the quality of life of the population and not an end. The production and dissemination of information is essential for a Smart City, which can help the population in decision making processes, as well as mobility operators and infrastructure managers, in a more efficient management of resources.

8. What relationship exists (or should exist) between a Smart City and sustainable development?

Being a concept that should be embraced by municipal authorities in terms of planning and mobility management, sensors, technology and information produced in a Smart City should be used as complementary tools to achieve these objectives of sustainable development.

9. What do you think the cities of the future will look like?

I believe that the cities of the future must try to reconcile, using the concepts of the Smart Cities, the various means of transport, the users of the mobility system and also the reasons for travel.

For a long time, the transport system was designed to optimize home-working and home-school travel. Of course these are very important, but more and more we must think about the other functions of the city, such as leisure and consumption.

10. Being PARTTEAM & OEMKIOSKS a company that develops and manufactures multimedia kiosks, self-service equipment, digital billboards, interactive tables and other digital solutions for all kinds of industries and at an international level, how can these equipments and the technology in general contribute to the development of Smart Cities?

These equipments are essential for Smart Cities, as they allow the distribution of updated information to the public and, eventually, in real time. They are key pieces for the development of the cities of the future!