Digital Birmingham is a Birmingham City Council initiative and part of a city wide strategic partnership of more than 30 public, private and voluntary organisations
As part of the first steps in making Birmingham the UK's first Intelligent City, a demonstrator of how digital technology could be employed to make it easier to get round Birmingham has been developed and launched by the Birmingham Science City. Involving a consortium of partners, including the council's Digital Birmingham partnership, Coventry University Enterprises, Microsoft and Virtual Earth developer Shoothill. 
It focuses on bringing together two of the region's strengths - digital media and transport technologies. It combines a range of data including traffic congestion, car parking availability and bus scheduling to provide real time location-specific tracking information through one platform. The concept would present the commuter and visitor with information specific to where they are at the point of enquiry.
Take for example, a would-be traveller located at Birmingham International Airport, they would be able to find the quickest and most fuel-efficient route to the Hagley Road, avoiding traffic jams and bottlenecks, and discover which is the nearest car park with available spaces.
As they travel around the city the information would be constantly updated, linking public service travel information to in-car systems, allowing the driver to respond accordingly. It would be equally applicable for pedestrians and public transport users, who could use their mobile phones in the same way as a driver would use a sat nav. GPS links would show the walking route to the bus stop and the time of the next bus, or advise an alternative route if the bus is delayed.
Cllr Len Gregory, Cabinet Member for Transportation and Street Services, believes the concept will revolutionise travelling around the city.
"Birmingham has an ambitious integrated transport policy and the logical progression of this concept would put the citizen, business person or visitor firmly in the driving seat," he said.
"Digital technologies are vital to our vision of an 'Intelligent City' and, with transport impacting on the life of virtually everyone in the region, there's no better place to start."
Birmingham's 'Intelligent Transport' concept builds on and complements existing systems such as the Help2Travel website and Network West Midlands portal. According to Dominic Gill, West Midlands regional manager for Microsoft, it is the first in the UK and the first step in a multi-million pound demonstrator programme for the consortium aimed at addressing key urban issues relating to transport, tourism, security and climate change through the exploitation of information technology.
"This is the first application to use available data intuitively to put real power in the hands of individuals to make and refine their travel plans," he said.
"It's no overstatement to say that the strategy of linking with many separate information sources so that they can continuously react to an individual's changing circumstances will transform people's travelling experiences within Birmingham."
The next stage, subject to funding, will be a live demonstrator project along one of Birmingham's busiest commuter roads - the A38 - to showcase the role this project can play in easing traffic flow and reducing both congestion and carbon emissions.
