Intro
In part one of Intertraffic’s look at the smartest cities in Belgium, Leuven’s Expert Advisor on Smart Mobility Tim Asperges provides insight into why many believe his city to be the smartest of them all.
There are, naturally, several cities in Belgium that have every right to consider themselves to be the country’s smartest. Intertraffic readers will be able to make their own minds up in the coming weeks, but in this first instalment the focus is on the city of Leuven.
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Tekst1
In Belgian terms, however, if the subject is connected to smart mobility, it's widely thought to be a three-horse race between Leuven, Ghent and Antwerp. But how does a first time visitor know that Leuven is a smart city?
“That’s just it,” says Tim Asperges, the City of Leuven’s Expert Advisor on Smart Mobility. “You don't see that it is smart. That's the smart bit. When you are in a smart city, you have the feeling that the city is working. Leuven was nominated as the AI capital of Europe, not because we are inventing new ‘rocket science’, but because we have a very strong cooperation model between the research institutions, the companies, the inhabitants and the city itself.”
That's the smart bit of a smart city. When you are in one, you have the feeling that the city is working
A STELLAR CAST
As Asperges explains, the city is not resting on its laurels and is pushing ahead with a number of exciting initiatives.
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There are four types of memberships of Leuven 2030: the city itself, the research institutes, local companies and the Leuven’s citizens.
“All four can become a shareholder of Leuven 2030 but as a company, you have to put some money into it and you have to submit an action plan: what you are going to do in the Climate Neutral city, for instance. The Stella Artois brewery is one of the partners,” Asperges explains. “Currently we have 600 members of Leuven 2030.”
CITIZEN SCIENTISTS
One very important factor in the city’s smart initiative is the collaboration with and participation of world-renowned nano- and digital technologies research hub, IMEC.
“IMEC are using Leuven as a living lab. That's why we have a lot of tests and trials and upscales of things that are connected to smartness. Because we are a university city, people are perhaps more open to new things.”
IMEC are using Leuven as a living lab. That's why we have a lot of tests and trials and upscales of things that are connected to smartness
One of the projects that brought Leuven’s work into mainstream smart mobility thinking was WeCount, one of the world’s first “citizen science” initiatives. Asperges explains how project was put into operation in several locations across Europe. Using a window-mounted sensor in combination with a low-cost computer and software, citizens can count the traffic on their street. Using this measurement data, an individual citizen or a group of citizens can report issues to local or regional government.
