Within one generation, Bielefeld will change considerably. […] ReVeAL will allow us to turn around the wheel of history, moving away from an automotive generation to a mobile generation and switching from the "motorway" to the "multiway"
Gregor Moss Head of Department of Economic Affairs, Urban Planning and Mobility
Bielefeld is a city with a heterogeneous and polycentric settlement structure. With an area of 258 square kilometres and 340.000 inhabitants, it is the 18th most populated city in Germany and No. 8 in the federal state of North Rhine Westphalia. The city of Bielefeld is the economic centre of the region of East Westphalia-Lippe and one of the Urban Nodes in Europe.
In recent years there has been a trend towards re-urbanization: the city has grown by about 10,000 people since 2010, and forecasts for the future assume that it will grow by a further 6 percent by 2025. The city must therefore cope with growing housing development with increasing traffic flows, air pollution and noise. Thus, smart, integrated and innovative solutions are needed to promote a “healthy” growth.
Bielefeld has a keen interest to utilise the potentials of ICT and innovative technologies for a more sustainable transport system in line with its overall SUMP vision. It aspires to move towards a ZEZ / LEZ in its central Jahnplatz as a long-term goal: it plans to do so with a coordinated suite of measures, such as an access control system like barrier gates and modern camera technology, smartphone applications to grant special entrance rights to residents, freight and ambulances in real time or ICT components as complementary systems to support freight management. Bielefeld is also planning to integrate these activities with an upgrade of its dynamic parking guidance system and with new ITS applications for traffic signals enabling signal control systems to anticipate expected traffic flows.
