Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Tamlyn Shimizu: Welcome to Smart in the City, the BABLE podcast, where we bring together top actors in the Smart City arena, sparking dialogues and interactions around the stakeholders and themes most prevalent for today's citizens and tomorrow's generations.
I am your host, Tamlyn Shimizu, and I hope you will enjoy this episode and gain knowledge and connections to accelerate the change for a better urban life.
Smart in the city is brought to you by BABLE Smart Cities. We enable processes from research and strategy development to co creation and implementation. To learn more about us, please visit the BABLE platform at bable-smartcities.eu.
Today I'm in the beautiful city of Barcelona once again. And I'm at the Smart City Expo World Congress and tomorrow, mobility at BABLE. We have been working on a really cool project, a very interesting initiative, and a newly created network called Civinet Iberia. We're pleased to manage the secretariat of the network and are working to expand the network and make it focused on very meaningful topics for our ambassadors and for the other members. Civina Iberia is the local network of Cevitas in Spain and Portugal, whose central purpose is to promote sustainable mobility in both countries. Through exchange between key actors, community building, and training, this network will boost collective expertise, equipping cities with the necessary tools to put mobility at the heart of decarbonization. If you want to know more about the network, stay tuned at the end of the episode, we'll also share more details on how you can get involved, and, of course, we'll link everything in the show notes. Also, I have to give thanks to Fiera Barcelona, the organizers of the Smart City Expo, for inviting us to also be media partners here and for recording the podcast episodes here. So I am pleased to introduce you to two of our ambassadors from our network, representing both the Spanish and the Portuguese side of this multilingual network.
First. I have Pedro Moreira. He is the head of transport authority and mobility management at the city of Braga in Portugal. Welcome, Pedro.
[00:02:11] Pedro Vale Moreira: Thank you. Thank you for your invitation, and I'm very glad to be here.
[00:02:16] Tamlyn Shimizu: Happy to have you. And next up, I have Cristina Alvarez rekhena. She's the CEO of Las Rosas in Nova, which is the municipal company of the city council of Las Rosas. Welcome, Cristina.
[00:02:29] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Hello. Thank you very much. A pleasure to be with you today.
[00:02:32] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, pleasure to have you. So I have a little teaser question to get us started, and it's a very silly question.
It's if Braga and Las Rosas were animals, which animals would they be and why?
Pedro, would you like to start?
[00:02:55] Pedro Vale Moreira: Well, that's a tricky question. I think I'm going to say a tiger.
Yeah. Because this kind of animal really dominates.
[00:03:14] Tamlyn Shimizu: The jungle.
[00:03:15] Pedro Vale Moreira: The jungle?
[00:03:16] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:03:16] Tamlyn Shimizu: The jungle of Smart Cities.
[00:03:18] Pedro Vale Moreira: Jungle of Smart Cities. And the cities are really a jungle of mobility.
So I think tiger tiger will be.
[00:03:27] Tamlyn Shimizu: My option, Braga the tiger. I like it.
[00:03:29] Tamlyn Shimizu: All right.
[00:03:30] Tamlyn Shimizu: Las Rosas.
[00:03:32] Cristina Álvarez Requena: The lion. I would have said the lion.
[00:03:35] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:03:36] Cristina Álvarez Requena: My first idea. Yeah. Because of the strong strengthening of the animal and the living as well, because Rotas is now known in Spain as the sorry for the word, but the leader of the innovation in Spain and smart city issues and sustainability and so on. So we feel like a lion in the jungle as well.
[00:04:02] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:04:03] Tamlyn Shimizu: Leader of the pack.
[00:04:04] Tamlyn Shimizu: Right. Well, you're the lion of, like, safari and Braga can be the tiger of the jungle.
[00:04:09] Tamlyn Shimizu: Right. Okay, perfect.
[00:04:10] Pedro Vale Moreira: So we are, firstly a lion.
[00:04:16] Tamlyn Shimizu: Perfect. I love it. So I want to start off with giving the audience a little bit of intel into your backgrounds, your stories, what led you into your role today? So, Pedro, would you like to start and give us a little info about you?
[00:04:34] Pedro Vale Moreira: Yes, briefly. My main degree is on industrial management.
That is the kind of degree that help us to understand how the systems work. And we have this logistical part that I get more in detail with my master's degree in transportation. So after that, mobility was just a natural step in my career then. Braga is one of the most interesting cities in Portugal to work on these types of subjects. So, for me, it was also a pleasure to start working on types in Braga in a period of several changes, also national level and regional level. So I'm happy to follow all these new developments together with our citizens.
[00:05:44] Tamlyn Shimizu: Absolutely. And so you're not from Braga originally, but you work there now?
[00:05:48] Pedro Vale Moreira: Yeah, I'm not from Braga, but I worked there right now for more or less five years.
[00:05:54] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very good.
[00:05:55] Pedro Vale Moreira: And right now, I really feel that Braga is the place to do things in mobility.
[00:06:04] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very good.
[00:06:05] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:06:05] Tamlyn Shimizu: And you're everywhere and really engaging with so many important stakeholders internationally as well. So, obviously a very good asset for Braga to have is yourself. So, Cristina, I'd love to hear a little bit about your background and your role.
[00:06:22] Cristina Álvarez Requena: I'm a PhD engineer, and I have been working in innovation projects the last 20 years in an international company. And now I'm the CEO of the municipal company of Innovation in the city of Larotas. So my background is all in innovation. And Larofas inova is in charge of developing and carrying the innovation projects in the city, and which is a medium sized city, Larotas. It's in the outskirts of Madrid, the capital. So it has an interesting place to commute and to have the mobility system. The municipal company develops projects of sustainability, mobility, sustainable mobility, energy, digitalization entrepreneurships as well. And it also implements processes of public procurement of innovation and energize the ecosystem as well, always in the context of innovation. And as you can see, we are the tool that the city council needs to implement to be the forefront of the city and new projects and the smart city.
[00:07:30] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:07:30] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very interesting how this relationship works between Las Rosas Inova and the city of Las Rosos as yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Good. So let's dive in a little bit to the Civinet. Pedro, what do you think you're involved in? I know many EU initiatives, networks, that kind of thing. Why do you think it's important for Braga to be a part of the civilit Iberia? Like, what extra value can it bring?
[00:08:00] Pedro Vale Moreira: Well, first of all, being part of these EU networks and initiatives natural brings lots of advantages.
First, in financial terms, so we're talking about a country or a city that still needs support to develop the projects and to implement concrete actions in the field. So we need resource support from the EU that's vital for our development. And being part of these networks, we can have access to cities also that have common issues, that have common problems, and we need to find between them some partnerships.
Sometimes we find cities that not only have those common problems, but they know how to solve things, and they are right in the process of solving things. So we can always count on them to teach us, or we can obviously transmit our knowledge to other cities.
And this is the kind of thing that makes this completely different from working alone. Working alone, sometimes we are very close to make things happen. So if we work in a network with partners from other cities, from other countries, we get to know each other in these kind of networks, we realize if there is some empathy and common ways of working, this would obviously add value to the cities.
Regarding Cvnet, if I report, we know that there are always some cities that are not well, they are less active in these kind of networks. So Cinet can be a channel of bringing together. Some cities that are more local, are smaller, but if they are together, they will understand that being together allows them to rise their voice and to find common projects that could be really supported at national or international levels. So there's a need for big cities to find solutions between other cities, smaller cities that sometimes are at the upfront of the development, but at the same time, there's a need of smaller cities to learn and to go to bigger cities and bring the solutions for their own reality. So this network is vital and Cineberry can bring it for sure.
[00:11:03] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, I'm really excited to see the next steps. We just started really at the beginning of this year with the network, and it's so exciting to already see so many active ambassadors like yourself. So I'm really excited for the coming years and seeing how we can really bring in those cities who maybe aren't usually in the forum of these type of events and in these networks. And thank you, of course, for your help in doing so.
Cristina, I want to talk a little bit more about innovation because this is really your field, this is what you do.
[00:11:36] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:11:38] Tamlyn Shimizu: And so how do you think that innovation and digital transformation is shaping the way your city is tackling central challenges? And how can you ensure that it's also accessible?
[00:11:51] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Well, you asked me about Oxas, but in fact, at this moment, I would say that many cities in Spain are running in this race for innovation, for incorporating the best and newest technology in the territories. Yes, we are every cities in this race, but well, La Rosas has been able to anticipate a little bit and provide mechanisms for two things. One, the city can incorporate innovation in the services it provides to citizens, and another, to be quick, because although it may seems obvious, the management in the administration is very slow. And it's not so easy that something that could be implemented or developed in a reasonable time in the end becomes obsolete because of the time that the administration manage. So La Rosa Sinova as a public company, a public company, but a public enterprise in reality is the tool that the city needs to implement these things. So it was decided to create this public company, La Rosta Sinova, and a public entity that develops innovation and also manages it not only by something, by a product. So it incorporates projects, as I mentioned before, innovation projects as services with artificial intelligence blockchain or deep learning for energy management, or to take care of people as well with this AI technology. Or for example, it launches carpooling or car sharing projects always in the La Rosas company, or transport on demand, for example, digital twins. So all these kind of technologies, new technologies, innovations and so on, applied to the citizens, applied to the city, but through the public company. So, as well as money is not unlimited, laro Fasinova also is in charge of the fundraising. So in the last two years, it has raised funding, the projects worth more than €20 million because we as well go to European projects, next generation funding and so on. So yeah, money is important.
[00:14:09] Tamlyn Shimizu: Money is important, yes.
Yeah.
[00:14:13] Tamlyn Shimizu: Wonderful.
Pedro, can you tell me a little bit more maybe about a specific project that you're working on that you want to kind of highlight in this episode?
[00:14:27] Pedro Vale Moreira: Yes, I think that I can refer because it's a very interesting project, a project that was developed last year in Braga called Pacification.
That project was supported by European funds and it mainly allowed us to reward the use of bicycle in the city. So we had this system that can monitorize the bike users in the city and can reward their shift from the car to the bicycle. So as much as they cycle, as much as they want money, real money, vouchers to spend in our local shops. And the main difference between this project and some others that I knew meanwhile, is that this one has a double certification of the ride. So the ride was certified by the app and by the cell phone, but at the same time it was certified by the beacon that was put in each bike. So that this double check allow us to know exactly how many kilometers that users ride. So right now we have data from at least 500 cyclists in the city that we are using to understand where are the main lanes or the main streets that cyclists use and then to improve the conditions for cycling in those streets. So there is a main construction work right now in Braga in one of our main streets that was justified at least that part of cycle ends by the use of cyclists. In this project we discovered that that street particularly was one of the most used streets even without a cycling.
[00:16:47] Tamlyn Shimizu: So then you could get buy in to put better infrastructure up based on that data.
[00:16:53] Pedro Vale Moreira: So we are following the idea of data driven decision so we are using data to improve the decisions that municipality make.
[00:17:05] Tamlyn Shimizu: Really interesting project, thanks for sharing and did you see people really get excited about getting the money, the vouchers a lot?
[00:17:13] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, hey, money is everything. Money is everything.
[00:17:18] Pedro Vale Moreira: There was this ranking and people were fighting to get to the top of the ranking even if that ranking doesn't bring them more money because they wanted to be the first one. So there is also this gamification process that it was quite interesting.
So we had these different levels of analysis like the data, but also the social impact, how people from the beginning to the end of the project start using bikes for good for their everyday commute. So it was a very interesting project.
[00:18:03] Tamlyn Shimizu: Really cool, really cool project. We've solved user behavior problems, right? Just give people money and then they'll change their behavior. That's the lesson.
[00:18:15] Pedro Vale Moreira: Well, I think that the lesson is we need to support people on their change of behavior.
[00:18:22] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:18:23] Pedro Vale Moreira: Their behavior change must be supported somehow.
If it is with money, if it is with being because there are other studies that show us that if you can change our behavior for at least three months and we discover that change of behavior, it's good you will maintain.
[00:18:47] Cristina Álvarez Requena: That change of three months because they.
[00:18:50] Tamlyn Shimizu: Get in the habit.
[00:18:51] Pedro Vale Moreira: Get the habit. So we had this project, this pilot project for four months and 30% of the people that use the specification and start using bikes kept that habit after the project even without money. So we needed that boost to make them change from their car to the bike.
[00:19:17] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very interesting.
[00:19:18] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Cool project.
[00:19:19] Tamlyn Shimizu: Thanks so much for sharing Cristina. Also I'm wondering what maybe projects or in different ways Les Rosas can serve as an example for other cities. What lessons have you learned that can be passed on to other cities?
[00:19:34] Cristina Álvarez Requena: The very creation of the innovation company is an agile mean for innovation studying in biodiversities. That's true. It's not a foundation, it's not an innovation agency.
Being a company has its advantages. But on the other hand, creating the atmosphere of innovation, connecting the ecosystem of companies and academia, generates talent that it's being consumed by ourselves, by the company, by the city, but also sported to other companies. And it's a very good self growth model. That's true. We try to create this talent with all this atmosphere of innovation, with the companies and so on. There is also an idea of adding municipalities around Las Rotas to take advantage of the synergies, because with the technological madrid west I mean I am going to explain the Mott. Madrid Oeste technological in Spanish, that is tricky word meet in Massachusetts Institute of Technology the Mott we have created a region with four municipalities that is in the west of Madrid. Madrid Oyster Technological that has the same characteristics, the same quality of life, quality of education and so on. To make synergies with the universities, the companies, technological companies and so on, to create this atmosphere of innovation as well, to boost projects, innovation projects. So the Mod is our main project, I mean, just now, to boost and to continue to launch innovation projects in a region not only in the municipality, and could have multiplied the positive effects that innovation could have in the municipality. And I could tell you that Las Roc has leads groups of working sessions in Refi in the re fidares intelligentes of Spain. Refi. So we export our knowledge and our experience in this net as well, to continue with these projects in other municipalities around Madrid and around all Spain. So we involve them in bigger.
[00:21:53] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very.
[00:21:53] Tamlyn Shimizu: Good, very good examples to share with other cities of think, maybe to both of you, what do you think would be the advantages of having an entity like Les Rosa Sanova as a company versus as maybe just an innovation office within the city? What are those advantages of having the company?
[00:22:18] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Well, as I said, having a municipal company, it's an advantage overall to speed the processes, the procedures and the purchase procedures. I mean, because the administration is so long, so slowly movement, so you take so many time to get so long to have anything. So yeah, to have a public company much faster, it belongs to municipalities, so it's the same, but the procedures are different. So it's a very good advantage.
[00:22:59] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:23:00] Cristina Álvarez Requena: And I think is the only public company of innovation that exists in Spain. So it's only for innovation projects. I mean, all the other services to the citizens are already done with the municipality itself, is the municipality.
[00:23:17] Tamlyn Shimizu: So it's a very good idea, good.
[00:23:20] Tamlyn Shimizu: Structure, to speed up the innovation.
[00:23:23] Cristina Álvarez Requena: The other thing that could not have been immediate or necessary or so on, it's innovation. So a poor city doesn't do innovation, but to align the innovation in another company public company. It's a very good idea.
[00:23:46] Tamlyn Shimizu: We have the pilot here in Spain and yeah, it works well.
[00:23:50] Tamlyn Shimizu: Good.
[00:23:51] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah, thanks. Speed is so important right now when we're facing such fast targets.
[00:23:57] Tamlyn Shimizu: Let's say so, yeah.
[00:23:58] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very good tip there.
Pedro, what do you think when you're speaking about Braga, what comes to mind as kind of your biggest challenge or need that Braga is facing, especially when it comes to sustainable mobility, of course. And what steps is Braga kind of taking to encourage these changes?
[00:24:22] Pedro Vale Moreira: Well, challenge are several, but regarding sustainable mobility, I would say that we are talking about reducing the number of cars in the city.
[00:24:36] Tamlyn Shimizu: Nobody else has a similar challenge.
[00:24:38] Tamlyn Shimizu: I'm sure.
[00:24:40] Pedro Vale Moreira: It'S not the purpose itself, but it's the problems that the cars bring to the city. So right now we have like 70% of our movements of our commuting is made by car.
We have like 60% of our movements in the city above 3 km are made by car. So we don't even have these short distances made by other modes. They're not the car. So one thing takes to another. We have a lot of cars. So we have these problems with public transportation system because we are not this big city, we are medieval city. So our streets are narrow. We cannot put streets dedicated to only buses or only public transportation if we don't give them solutions to make their everyday movements without their car. So to reduce car, that's a challenge. But we have to improve the other modes of transportation. And right now we are improving cycling. We are implementing several kilometers of cycling lanes. We are improving and modernizing our public transport company.
We are making more service, more buses with newer buses, electric buses.
Right now we have more or less 30% of our fleet is electric already. But we think that in the next 2030 we will have 100% of the fleet to be electric.
Okay? That kind of thing doesn't remove cars, but gives comfort to the passenger. That's one of the things that the passenger needs most to feel comfortable in their everyday travel. So it's not easy to answer to your question, but if we start to remove cars, if we start to have less cars in the city, we will have no traffic, traffic jam, we will have better public transportation, we will have space for cycling. So we have to make these progresses in the next year.
[00:27:28] Tamlyn Shimizu: And what you're doing is giving everyone money.
[00:27:33] Tamlyn Shimizu: That's the steps you're taking in a pilot way.
[00:27:38] Pedro Vale Moreira: Money is an official part of that. Of course, people need to understand that if they use public transportation for the everyday travel, they will not spend as much as they spend in their car. A car is expensive, the fuel is expensive, the car needs parking, that is expensive. So there's a lot of money issues here that the city needs to give other alternatives to the citizens that are with lower costs and makes the same way that the car makes and more healthy.
[00:28:26] Tamlyn Shimizu: And more healthy, yeah.
[00:28:28] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very important, of course, to demonstrate at the end.
[00:28:32] Pedro Vale Moreira: The challenge is not to reduce cars. The challenge is to improve the quality of life of the citizens.
[00:28:38] Tamlyn Shimizu: Exactly.
[00:28:38] Pedro Vale Moreira: So that's the main goal.
But it's not a challenge. Our goal is to improve the quality of lives of the citizens. We understand that the car is against the quality of lives of the citizens. So if we understand that, we need to act on that.
[00:28:57] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Exactly.
[00:28:59] Tamlyn Shimizu: Well put. To differentiate the goal and the challenge.
Because the Civinet is very focused on this kind of collaboration between Spain and Portugal. And I want to ask you both, what do you think can be done to foster more collaboration between Spain and Portugal?
[00:29:21] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Yeah, networks like CBNet helps a lot to share experiences and not start from scratch in many initiatives. I mean, it's not good to start from zero, but having another example, as you as Braga to start with already experiences demonstrated and so on, and making policies that have already been successful. But that's true that other alternatives, for example, ICC International City Challenge not only with Portugal, but also but with other countries and cities in the rest of the European countries and Europe projects as well. Because there you can collaborate with many other countries and cities in the same topics and even you can get money because all these nets are financed. So you ask for money and you submit your proposals and you can get money to implement this kind of policies with real projects, implementations, maybe if you need as well infrastructure or, I don't know, other things, you can be financed. It's not exclusively with Portugal, but as we have said before, we have in Europe calls only exclusive for the south of Europe, the southern countries of Europe. So we have characteristics, similar characteristics, and we are connected in our railways and transport. So it's obvious to implement projects in the same sense.
[00:31:15] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah. Is language.
Language is similar, but it's still a little bit of a challenge between you all.
[00:31:22] Tamlyn Shimizu: No.
[00:31:25] Pedro Vale Moreira: It is a challenge, but it happens a lot to conversations between Spanish and Portuguese people, to speak in English.
[00:31:37] Cristina Álvarez Requena: If you make the effort, you can stand the main percentage of the conversation. But that's true that it's not exactly.
[00:31:44] Pedro Vale Moreira: But the problem is from the Portuguese side, we don't make ourselves understood.
[00:31:53] Tamlyn Shimizu: Portuguese sounds a little bit more like mumbly to me.
[00:31:57] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Do you think so?
[00:31:59] Pedro Vale Moreira: Everyone understands Spanish, but I'm not so easy to understand. But I think that is not a barrier and it's something that connect us. So I think that our countries are neighbor countries, we divide a lot of history, we share a lot of traditions, a lot of ways to look at the cities and look at the worlds that are common. So I really think that if we, as a portuguese city. Need to find similar examples in Europe. First thing to do is look at Spain. Look at Spain. Try to understand, because the realities are much more alike than if we are going to I don't know if Braga goes to Helsinki and try to compare things, the way of living is totally different.
[00:33:00] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Yeah, that's true.
[00:33:01] Pedro Vale Moreira: Between Spain and Portugal, we are much more.
[00:33:04] Cristina Álvarez Requena: And in the frontier, there are many people who goes from cities in Portugal who come to Spain to work and come back at night and things like that, because really near, some cities are really near in two different countries, but they need to connect themselves.
[00:33:24] Pedro Vale Moreira: We have a transfrontier region in Shabbat in the north of Portugal to Galise. I think there's a trans frontier community that works on both sides of frontier, so we are quite close.
[00:33:43] Tamlyn Shimizu: And mobility is actually one of the best ways to connect those, too.
[00:33:47] Tamlyn Shimizu: Right. So to connect, the two countries needs to connect.
[00:33:52] Pedro Vale Moreira: Mobility exists to connect.
We are so close, we need to be connected.
[00:34:00] Tamlyn Shimizu: Exactly.
[00:34:00] Pedro Vale Moreira: For sure.
[00:34:01] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:34:01] Tamlyn Shimizu: Very good words. Now, the last full question in my interview that I have is really around a fun exercise. So if you have three words to describe how you want your city to develop by the year 2030, what would those words be? Cristina?
[00:34:23] Cristina Álvarez Requena: I think sustainable as well. Accessible, maybe digital.
[00:34:29] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
Pedro?
[00:34:32] Pedro Vale Moreira: Well, for me, I don't know if it's my way of thinking.
For me, I would love to have a city that is calm, it's green and is enjoyable.
[00:34:46] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:34:46] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Can we take the six?
[00:34:49] Tamlyn Shimizu: Can we make the match? You also want us to be calm and enjoyable, green.
[00:34:55] Pedro Vale Moreira: I really want also Braga to be sustainable, sensible and digital.
[00:35:00] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah. Okay, I allow it.
Six combined. Right. Because you're better together. Exactly.
Very good.
[00:35:09] Tamlyn Shimizu: I want to ask you if there's anything else that we missed today in the conversation. I like to give the guests an open floor. In case you really feel like you have something that you're passionate about, you don't have to take it.
Did we miss anything in the interview?
Okay, perfect. Don't have to take it, then.
[00:35:29] Tamlyn Shimizu: All right.
[00:35:30] Tamlyn Shimizu: With that, then we'll just roll into our next segment, which is called Roll with the Punches. It's my favorite segment, actually, to do.
[00:35:40] Tamlyn Shimizu: It's really fun.
Cristina's, worried about it.
[00:35:45] Tamlyn Shimizu: Roll with the punches.
Answer this or that questions quickly and with your first instincts.
[00:35:55] Tamlyn Shimizu: So, Pedro, you will answer first, and then, Cristina, you will follow. And then we'll just go quickly through.
And then at the end, if you want to explain any of your answers, you can.
Are you ready?
[00:36:07] Tamlyn Shimizu: No.
Exactly. No. Yes. Okay.
[00:36:14] Tamlyn Shimizu: All right. Active mobility incentives or shared mobility systems?
[00:36:18] Pedro Vale Moreira: Shared mobility system.
[00:36:20] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Yeah, I agree. Shared mobility system.
[00:36:22] Tamlyn Shimizu: Autonomous vehicles or improved public transport?
[00:36:24] Pedro Vale Moreira: Improved public transport.
[00:36:26] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Autonomous vehicles because they are more innovative.
[00:36:31] Tamlyn Shimizu: Pedestrian zones or green corridors?
[00:36:34] Pedro Vale Moreira: Pedestrian zones.
[00:36:36] Tamlyn Shimizu: Green corridors green and calm.
[00:36:41] Tamlyn Shimizu: Electric cars or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles?
[00:36:48] Pedro Vale Moreira: I would go for hydrogen.
[00:36:51] Tamlyn Shimizu: Hydrogen?
[00:36:52] Cristina Álvarez Requena: The electric one. Because it's just now we are.
[00:37:00] Tamlyn Shimizu: A sailing ship or a hot air balloon for intercontinental travel.
[00:37:07] Pedro Vale Moreira: Sailing ship.
[00:37:08] Tamlyn Shimizu: I don't have an air balloon.
[00:37:11] Pedro Vale Moreira: Balloon.
[00:37:12] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Electric bikes?
[00:37:15] Tamlyn Shimizu: Not allowed. Not allowed.
We'll go with balloon for you. Yeah.
[00:37:23] Tamlyn Shimizu: Teleportation or time traveling trains?
[00:37:30] Pedro Vale Moreira: Time traveling trains.
[00:37:34] Cristina Álvarez Requena: Okay.
[00:37:37] Pedro Vale Moreira: Oh, at least if they are not Portuguese style.
[00:37:40] Tamlyn Shimizu: Yeah.
[00:37:43] Tamlyn Shimizu: Mediterranean Sea or Atlantic Ocean?
[00:37:49] Tamlyn Shimizu: Both not allowed.
[00:37:51] Pedro Vale Moreira: Mediterranean Atlantic in Portugal is too cold.
[00:37:55] Tamlyn Shimizu: Too cold.
[00:37:57] Cristina Álvarez Requena: But has the fruit of the mare the better.
[00:38:01] Tamlyn Shimizu: Exactly.
Okay, very good.
[00:38:05] Tamlyn Shimizu: Do you want to explain any of your answers?
[00:38:08] Tamlyn Shimizu: No, you'll just leave it at that. Right. Okay, perfect.
Don't worry, we won't quote you on this later on. No, but you committed to hydrogen vehicles.
Yeah, exactly.
[00:38:25] Tamlyn Shimizu: Now we're to the final question, and it's a question we ask every single guest in every single episode. And it's the question to you. What is a smart city?
[00:38:34] Pedro Vale Moreira: Okay, if I can start.
Well, for me, a smart city is a city that can offer the citizens the best quality of life with the minimum impact on the planet.
[00:38:50] Cristina Álvarez Requena: I could like my city to be an extension of my own house.
A balance between security, comfort, technology.
But if I were in my house, in my living room, it's an extension.
[00:39:04] Tamlyn Shimizu: Of your living room.
[00:39:07] Tamlyn Shimizu: Feel at home.
[00:39:08] Pedro Vale Moreira: That's a really smart city seat.
[00:39:12] Tamlyn Shimizu: You must have a very smart home. I'm big.
Very good.
[00:39:19] Tamlyn Shimizu: Well put.
I love that question because I always get really interesting examples and answers.
So with that, that's all I have for you today. I hope that you also enjoyed yourselves a little bit. I really enjoyed talking to you. Thank you very much for joining me today and for sharing your insights and experiences. And also I want to give a little shout out if you are a city or other stakeholder interested in getting involved with the Civinet. We will put the respective links in the show notes. You can reach out to us directly, get involved with these great people here. So thank you very much for joining us today.
I hope you come back sometime onto the podcast.
[00:40:01] Tamlyn Shimizu: Thank you to you.
[00:40:02] Pedro Vale Moreira: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure.
[00:40:05] Tamlyn Shimizu: Pleasure was all mine. And to all of our listeners, don't forget, you can always create a free account on BABLE SmartCities. EU and you can find out more about projects, solutions, implementations, and more. So thank you very much.
[00:40:19] Tamlyn Shimizu: Thank you all for listening. I'll see you at the next stop on the journey to a better urban life.
