The following saying is often heard in the corridors of Cascais City Council (CMC by its acronym in Portuguese): there is no democracy without mobility. “There is no point in building schools, health centres and libraries if people can´t get to them. Mobility must exist for us to be a democratic community”, declared the Director of the Future, Marco Espinheira, to Energiser.
Marco Espinheira photographed at C3 - Cascais Control Centre
The preparation of this concept has involved, primarily, the reorganisation of the structure of the city council and the creation of local companies active in four strategic areas: territory, people, present and future. If there´s an area that overlaps these four areas it´s mobility. Among the different technologies developed by the municipality in partnership with universities and other R&D institutions, MobiCascais has become one of the most popular. An integrated, faster, more sustainable and economical system designed to manage different means of transport – buses, trains, shared bicycles – and the city´s car parks.
Launched in 2016, the application, available on Google Play and App Store, is capable of connecting all the different means of transport available. For example, it serves to manage the use of ‘bicas’: shared bicycles available on a daily basis at the 80-plus bike sharing stations located around the district.
"Utopia is important, dreaming and believing in causes, but nobody doubts that the greatest impact in our cities is mobility”
As a means of promoting mobility and the use of these technologies, the city council has also invested in different packages geared to the population: a free package for children of up to 14 years of age covering the public road transport network in the greater Cascais area, and a cheaper monthly package for residents of 65 years of age and over.
“City councils had been focusing on hardware, on building, for a long time. This is more in line with the concept of a ‘stupid city’, not designed with its inhabitants in mind. Hence, it was concluded that what we needed wasn´t more infrastructure, but software. Utopia is important, dreaming and believing in causes, but nobody doubts that the greatest impact in our cities is mobility”, underlines the president of CMC, Carlos Carreiras.
CHANGING MENTALITIES
Carlos Carreiras has been driving a hybrid car for over 10 years. The president of the CMC, the leader of the process involving the transformation of the village into a benchmark smart city, believes that power can only be exercised through example, and this is why part of the city council´s fleet are electric vehicles.
Cascais´ politics are geared to a “change in mentality”. The idea is that citizens favour collective transport over individual transport, become more involved in the day-to-day of their city, actively participating both in the construction of the same and in reporting problems. As such, positive behaviour is promoted through a points system – CITYPOINTS CASCAIS –, which awards points to people registering such sustainable conduct, which can be exchanged for time in car parks, for example, discounts on mobility services, on buses, trains and bicycles.
Carlos Carreiras headed the process involving the transformation of Cascais into a smart city
The ‘urban ecosystem’ of Cascais is monitored by the Cascais Control Centre, a kind of municipal ‘brain’, where all the smart data gathered is processed. This investment in sustainability can already be measured: the collection of waste, for example, is based on a technology that enables the municipality to save three tons per year in CO2 emissions. How? By using sensors installed at recyclable material collection points (known as ecopoints), refuse trucks only leave the central depot with a planned route of full ecopoints.
“Today, when someone has a good idea – we all think we have good ideas, even the silliest –, there´s a place to put it before the public first hand, which is Cascais. We need to able to screen these ideas, but the structure is already in place. I don´t mind listening to 99 people talking nonsense if there´s one valid idea in the midst of them”, the local politician concluded.
