The city of Zaragoza, Spain, is moving towards becoming a Smart City, with a low-carbon footprint public transportation system, and becoming an example in sustainable mobility as soon as 2030.
Zaragoza continues developing its innovative sustainable mobility project while becoming the global gold standard as a Smart City, where low-carbon footprint investments such as bicycle lanes, streetcars, and electric buses are set to become the norm as soon as 2030.
Being a climate neutral city means pushing forward electromobility, non-motorized transport and public transport optimized for clean energy. Now, Zaragoza announces its ambitious goal to expand their Zero Emission lanes with the recent purchase of 68 electric buses.
The Irizar ie Tram model, whose power supply tech consists of pantographs, or electric charging stations, charges its batteries in a matter of minutes over the track, increasing their autonomy over the186-mile mark. These electric units can accommodate over 105 passengers.
Meanwhile, each Irizar ie Tram unit has an expected 15-year lifespan; so local public transport authorities plan to increase their electric bus fleet in 2023 to achieve a full zero emission mobility system in 2030.
However, electromobility isn’t Zaragoza’s only effort on sustainable mobility. This Smart Cite has chosen an urban mobility redistribution: 50% of commutes can be achieved simply by walking or on bicycle; 25% with public transportation and the last 25% by car, with the goal of reducing this area. It’s important to keep in mind that since 2005 the streetcar service growth resulted in a traffic reduction of almost 30% in 2012.
Regarding bicycle lanes and promoting healthy transportation, Zaragoza’s City Hall passed a bill limiting automobiles’ top speed to 18 mph on several streets. This action, as well as the implementation of bike-sharing systems and bike parks to free the urban space and sidewalks for pedestrians has helped Zaragoza’s denizens to choose bikes over cars.
Finally, right now Zaragoza continues their efforts to be an example in sustainable cities with the development of ZUM; an app that adds multimodal transportation to help users plan customized routes using real-time information. With these initiatives in Smart City development, Zaragoza reinforces their sustainable mobility towards 2030.