For cities like Montenegro’s capital, Podgorica, striving for climate neutrality means confronting persistently high shares of private car use and the harmful emissions that associated with it.   

“One of the greatest challenges we are facing is traffic. We still have a huge number of cars, despite public transport being much better than in the past,” explained Branka Knežević, Deputy Secretary for Urban Planning and Sustainable Development at the City of Podgorica, “It has a significant impact not only on air quality, but also on congestion, noise levels and so on.”  

The city has now piloted a data-driven solution, with support from EIT Urban Mobility’s RAPTOR programme, to help address these challenges. RAPTOR connects cities with startups and SMEs offering solutions tailored to pressing mobility issues. 

Through RAPTOR, Podgorica deployed monitoring station technology from Italy’s TEA Group that counts the number of vehicles on the city’s roads and measures a variety of pollutants.  

“When you show concrete data, then you can prove the necessity to reduce the number of cars. And now that we have a significant number of buses and adequate bus lines, there is no need to use cars to the extent that we do,” Knežević noted. 

AI-powered forecasting 

Insights from the low-cost AirQino technology, developed in collaboration with the Italian National Research Council, are expected to help the capital to make more targeted and evidence-based decisions to improve urban mobility and residents’ quality of life. 

During the pilot, AirQino stations were installed in seven locations across the city. Real-time data was transmitted to a cloud server and web-based platform, where it could be used to generate reports and analytics.  

By integrating data from multiple sources, including meteorological and satellite data, TEA Group’s AirQino solution can also use AI-powered models to forecast local pollution trends. 

“The great thing was that we were also involved in the company selection to develop and implement the solution with us. This was important for us,” Knežević emphasized, “RAPTOR is very useful because the needs of the cities are central to the programme. As a city, it is really important for our problems, needs and suggestions to be recognised and respected.”  

Filling data gaps 

Podgorica will be able to use the platform to support future traffic management planning, from identifying areas experiencing the greatest traffic pressure to determining where measures such as traffic calming, noise barriers or even a low-emissions zone could be most appropriate. 

The detailed data provided by the monitoring stations will give the city a stronger evidence base for these decisions. With greater resolution across both time and location, Podgorica will be better equipped to identify where interventions are most needed and assess which measures are most appropriate for different areas. 

An important objective for Podgorica was to better understand how much of the city’s air pollution came from car use specifically, and to distinguish it from air pollution stemming from sources such as the burning of wood for heating homes. While the local authority does has an established air quality monitoring system, the monitoring is only done annually in three locations in the city. 

Thus, the additional AirQino stations are expected to fill an important data gap: how many cars are on the city’s roads, and what share of emissions are they responsible for? Automating this data collection could also deliver considerable cost savings. 

With more comprehensive data, the city will be able to establish a correlation between the number of vehicles and air pollution levels, providing a stronger evidence base for designing effective sustainability policies.  

Precious opportunity  

“RAPTOR was an excellent experience for us from start to finish. The application process was thoroughly explained and we had dynamic, and concrete communication with EIT Urban Mobility throughout the entire process,” Knežević noted, “We could express our needs and get relevant, concrete support. This is the most valuable aspect of the programme.” 

The successful initial deployment of the monitoring stations led TEA Group and Podgorica to agree to extend the pilot period to one year, at no additional cost to the city.  

By collecting data across different seasons and holiday periods, the city expects to build a more comprehensive and ultimately more accurate picture of traffic and pollution patterns. 

“It has been a really positive experience, and I would also encourage other cities to apply and participate in EIT Urban Mobility’s RAPTOR programme,” Knežević concluded.