New Polis member: La Spezia

The city of La Spezia is located on the north-western coastline of Italy and has around 95 000 inhabitants. Its strategic geographical position means that the Gulf of La Spezia is an important site for marine commerce and technologies.

The city’s mobility department has the full responsibility of all main urban transport developments such as the implementation of a new city bypass, the construction of two large underground car parks, expansion of the bike sharing system and the trolleybus network.

The city is growing very fast in terms of recent ITS developments. UTC and VMS are in place since 1995, an infomobility web site since 2008 and many new systems were introduced in recent years including a new access control system using ANPR, an infoparking systems (real time information using sensors and variable message signs), a new smart card for an integrated mobility scheme (to be used for bike sharing, park and ride, bus ticket, parking management) and a new freight parking management scheme.

The aim of the city is to became a “living lab” for the new ITS generation supporting new concepts such as the “cooperative systems”.

La Spezia is currently involved in the Interreg IVC project POSSE on open specifications and standards.