Cisco and the City of Seoul have launched their combined “Personal Travel Assistant” solution, a Web-based service that allows residents to make on-the-go travel decisions based on time, cost and carbon emissions.

 

According to Cisco (News - Alert) officials, PTA, unlike map-based direction-finders or trip planners, offers “virtual assistant” features and access to real-time information and user- and trip-specific travel guidance via any Web-enabled device, from any location.

 

“As a founding city of the Connected Urban Development program, we are now able to provide our citizens with the prototype of Personal Travel Assistant, which will allow them experience to increase their ability to make informed, eco-friendly travel decisions that will help reduce travel time and increase productivity,” said Sangbum Kim, assistant mayor and head of city transportation for Seoul.

 

Kim said that in addition to increasing citizen engagement with the city’s sustainability objectives, PTA enables city leaders and agencies to better manage the urban environment and transportation system.

 

Cisco officials say that PTA will empower the people of Seoul to improve their transit experience and reduce their personal carbon footprint by providing them with access to real-time transportation information from any location, on any Web-enabled device or communications channel, including smart phones, PDAs, Web sites, transit stations, vehicles and personal computers.

 

As part of the Connected Urban Development program, the PTA pilot is a collaborative effort among the city of Seoul, the city of Amsterdam and the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, the company’s strategic global consulting arm.

 

“Since the first Connected Urban Development Global Conference in February 2008, CUD has made tremendous progress with the launch and execution of sustainability pilots around the globe. We envision that the same principles of openness that have made the Internet a thriving ecosystem over the past 20 years can be applied to make cities a smarter platform for people, products and services,” said Simon Willis, vice president, global public sector, Cisco IBSG.

 

“We are pleased to debut the Seoul PTA as another example of the way we are using our global, open standards approach to provide real-time information that enables citizens, communities, cities, countries, and business organizations to develop policies and tangible pilots designed to improve the sustainability of cities,” Willis added.