At this past year's Living Labs Global Awards in Stockholm, Sweden, a number of traffic and parking solutions designed to improve traffic flow and parking efficiency in major European cities were recognized for their ingenuity and potential.

In the United States, as anywhere, traffic optimization is an ongoing project, as the number of vehicles continues to steadily increase with the population. In order to not only avoid gridlock, but optimize traffic flow along major urban arteries designed to manage a lower volume of traffic, traffic engineers must come up with creative methods of minimizing drive times and emissions.

Parking is also a major issue. Parking systems that direct motorists to available spaces are extremely effective in the United States, whether they are as simple as software and signs that direct drivers away from heavily congested lots or as involved as real-time directories that monitor parking availability on a by-space basis, sending drivers directly to an open space.

One proposed intelligent traffic solution project recognized at the Living Labs ceremony noted the unique public parking system proposed in Sant Cugat, Spain. The system, similar to systems in private properties in the United States that direct drivers to open parking spaces, allowed drivers to access real-time public parking information through a smartphone app that would direct them to an open space, saving them the time navigating Sant Cugat's busy streets.